Martin Marietta Unmanned Launch Vehicle

Last crawled date: 3 years, 3 months ago

The Unmanned Launch Vehicle (ULV) was a Martin Marietta concept for a Shuttle-derived partially-reusable heavy lift launch vehicle in the 1980s. It was composed almost entirely of Shuttle-heritage components: A reusable engine pod built around the Shuttle Main Propulsion System (including RS-25s) and using Shuttle-derived heat shielding; an expendable tank derived from the Shuttle ET; and 4 or 5 segment RSRM boosters. ULV was to be an evolvable system. Initial flights would use only a single engine pod with a side-mounted payload module, and the ET, RSRMs, and ground infrastructure virtually unchanged from Shuttle. Later flights would feature upgraded configurations with 2 engine pods, a stretched tank, 5 segment RSRMs, and an in-line hammerhead fairing. These later versions would also require new launch infrastructure, including a new dual-exhaust Mobile Launch Platform and integration facilities/prelaunch commodities for the inline payload fairing.