Martin Marietta Spacemaster

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Martin Marietta Spacemaster" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The Martin Marietta Spacemaster was a proposed configuration for what became the Space Shuttle, which featured an X-24-derived orbiter, and an unusual "catamaran style" booster stage. During launch and ascent, the orbiter would be located in a recess in the booster. The booster's 14 engines would be located in clusters of seven, at the bottom of both halves of the booster. Unlike the final design for the Space Shuttle, the Spacemaster would lack an external tank, and the boosters would be joined, by means of connecting struts which would also serve as the mounting for the orbiter.

The concept was evaluated in 1967, but was rejected. Martin Marietta went on to produce the Space Shuttle external tank (ET) for the final STS Space Shuttle design (by Lockheed Martin after a merger with Lockheed).

A model of the Martin Marietta Spacemaster is in the collection of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.^[1]

• List of space launch system designs
• Space Shuttle program

• Spacemaster scale model in black (in the foreground to the right)

This rocketry article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e