Ithacus - Credit: © Mark Wade. 5,621 bytes. 292 x 509 pixels.

An adaptation of Phillip Bono's enormous ROMBUS plug-nozzle semi-single-stage-orbit launch vehicle as a 1,200 soldier intercontinental troop transport!! The recoverable vehicle would re-enter, using its actively-cooled plug nozzle as a heat shield.

LEO Payload: 450,000 kg. to: 185 km Orbit. at: 28.0 degrees. Liftoff Thrust: 8,181,000 kgf. Total Mass: 6,363,000 kg. Core Diameter: 24.0 m. Total Length: 64.0 m.

• 36 - Gatland, Kenneth and Bono, Philip, Frontiers of Space, Macmillan, New York, 1969.