Bravo ISRO !

The maiden launch of the brand new GSLV Mark III was a great success this morning.
This rocket is powered by two large Solid Rocket booster S200 that lift it in the air. About 2 minutes later, the center stage L110 is ignited and carry the laucher into space. The 2nd stage was just a dummy stage on that flight and will later rely on its cryogenic engine to give an orbital speed to the payload.

This 1st flight carried a mock up of future human capsule that splashed down in the India Ocean 20 minutes after lift off.

The rocket reminds me of a Titan IV that would have been thicker and shorter. It looks definitely massive and powerful.
I built a full model of that rocket in Sketchup in order to draw exploded views and cutaways of that little beast.

 GSLV mark III cutaway

  GSLV mark III exploded view

GSLV mark III almost ready for lift off !

Hermes spacecraft - 1979 early draft

I think that the Hermes program, that runs from 1977 to 1993, is one of the longest, most passionate and eventually the most frustrated development of a spacecraft ever started.

There was a lot of hiccups all over this project.
Some technical issues first, that added some weight constantly over the time. It gave challenges to both the airframe and the booster.
Some political fights then between the main fund-raisers of ESA the European space agency in charge of Hermes. The British, the French and the German strongly disagree on the direction to go.
And last, some financial issue that put a stop to the work when the budget over exceeded all initial forecasts and the fundraisers decided to close their wallets.

But let's go back to 1977.

That year while the space shuttle Enterprise underwent its first free atmospheric test flight, CNES, the French space agency initiated a pre-study of a tiny space plane that could carry  European astronauts into orbit.

The plane was to be launched atop an Ariane rocket à la Dyansoar/Titan booster. But while the Ariane 1 was at that time in its final development stage (its maiden flight was in 1979) CNES envisionned a much more powerful launcher variant, the Ariane 5/H, to lift off Hermes.

In 1979, CNES presented a set of blueprints and artist rendering to the press.
The plane was 12,5 meters long with a wingspan of 8 meters and weighted 10 tons. It could carry 5 astronauts or 2 astronauts and a 1,5 tons payload. While much smaller it had a similar double delta wing shape as use on the US space shuttle.

I based my CAD modelling on this 1979 material and tried to imagine what would be that small bird into orbit.

References :

• CapcomEspace (French) - Didier Capdevilla : capcomespace.net/dossiers/espace_europeen/hermes/
• Flight International 1979 - flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/
• Science et Vie Nr 745 - October 1979 pp113-117.
• Europe's Space Programme: To Ariane and Beyond - Brian harvey - 2003- books.google.fr/
• Credit background earth images : NASA 

British Aerospace - Multi role recovery Capsule - 1987

In the mid eighties, ESA was to choose a project to give Europe a manned access to space. While the French were pushing to develop the Hermes spaceplane further, the British unveiled a much simpler alternative : The multi-role recovery capsule (MRRC).

British Aerospace made a pre-study for a 7 tons capsule that could carry 4 to 6 persons in orbit. The existing Ariane 4 rocket or some US rockets could be used as the launcher after being man-rated. In BAe’s plan, besides providing Europe with a man access to space, the capsule was envisioned to be also used as a lifeboat for the therefore planned US space station. Unfortunately, despite its versatility, the capsule was dropped by the ESA at the end of 1987 in favor of the ambitious Hermes spaceplane. However, several years later, the Hermes spaceplane will also be cancelled.

I found little information about this project. So I build the 3D model from this single artwork depicting the capsule. 

The capsule includes a Command Module with most probably a Common Berthing Mechanism to dock with the space station Freedom and some RCS thrusters on the top part. Windows and hatch are on the side. On the back is a disposable service module with its solar panel array and the communication antenna. 

References :

1. Marcus Lindroos - Astronautix - http://www.astronautix.com
2. BAe proposes manned capsule - FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 24 October 1987 - http://flightglobal.com