Boeing details its CST-100 spaceship (images)

[Dr Mordrid]

Boeing's CST-100 spacecraft can carry up to 7 passengers and has a 'pusher' launch escape system - no tower but a cluster of thrusters in its 'service module'. Made to launch on a variety of launchers. It and SpaceX's Dragon look to be the primary taxi's to Bigelow's commercial space stations and the ISS. Cargo wise, Dragon can carry much more.

Launchers from SpaceX and ULA (United Launch Associates)



Approaching ISS







Structure











Floatation

[Elie]

This is Apollo 13 reinvented.

Why not redesign the capsule to be a bit bigger, roomier and maybe with wings?

[Dr Mordrid]

That's because if the shuttle experience taught us anything it was that we had it right the first time with Apollo.

Wings and the huge airframe they require are useless dead weight in space, reducing the cargo capability up and down and making the cost/kg much, much higher. That and re-entry in a capsule is safer than re-entry in a spaceplane because their heat shields are less easily compromised, being covered during launch. (see Columbia.) Capsules are easier and cheaper to build, need much smaller/cheaper launch vehicles (medium vs. a heavy lifter) and are easier to restore for re-use.

Cost example: a Dragon with a shuttle size crew (they're the same at 7) costs about $200 million vs. >$1 billion for the shuttle. Need a shuttle size cargo? $95 - $150 million more gets you a Falcon 9 Heavy or Heavy H, which can launch a shuttle-size 25 metric tonne cargo plus another 10-30+ metric tonnes (larger # is with the Raptor hydrogen 2nd stage.) Repeating: 25 mT for the shuttle and 45+ mT for the Falcon 9 Heavy H.

The two flights are safer for the crew, loft more cargo and still cost a fraction of what the shuttle does.

Spaceplanes, even with a more durable heat shield, have one mission where they have an advantage: evacuation of a space station to a conventional runway nearly anywhere on the planet, preferably one near a medical facility. That's it.

If they made CST-100 bigger they'd have to change the name, maybe to Dragon?

Dragon carries the same number of crew, but much more cargo up and down - plus it has an unpressurized cargo capability in addition to pressurized, and it can mix cargo and crew. CST-100 is pretty much crew only with very limited pressurized and no unpressurized capability.