Nova was a series of proposed rocket

Rocket

A rocket is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust from a rocket engine. In all rockets, the exhaust is formed entirely from propellants carried within the rocket before use. Rocket engines work by action and reaction...

 designs, originally as NASA

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

's first large launchers for missions similar to the production-level Saturn V

Saturn V

The Saturn V was an American human-rated expendable rocket used by NASA's Apollo and Skylab programs from 1967 until 1973. A multistage liquid-fueled launch vehicle, NASA launched 13 Saturn Vs from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida with no loss of crew or payload...

, and later as larger follow-ons to the Saturn V intended for missions to Mars

Mars

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...

. The two series of designs were essentially separate, but shared their name. Thus, "Nova" does not refer to a specific rocket design, just a rocket larger than the Saturn V in most cases. To add more confusion, the final Saturn V design was larger than some of the early Nova proposals. The "Nova" depicted in the illustration is the "Nova C8" design (superficially akin to the "Nova 8L" proposal which, instead, had giant twin Aerojet M-1 engines in stage 2). It is also unclear in the historic record, but it appears the Nova C8 concept was nearly identical to the proposed "Saturn C-8

Saturn C-8

The Saturn C-8 was the largest member of the Saturn series of rockets to be designed. It was a potential alternative to the Nova rocket, should NASA have chosen a direct-landing method of lunar exploration for the Apollo program. The first stage was an increased diameter version of the S-IC. The...

"; there were differences in staging engines and in the stage-1 fin/flaring arrangement.

Lunar rockets

The first Nova series was designed in-house at NASA in 1959. This project examined a number of designs, the smallest having four F-1

F-1 (rocket engine)

The F-1 is a rocket engine developed by Rocketdyne and used in the Saturn V. Five F-1 engines were used in the S-IC first stage of each Saturn V, which served as the main launch vehicle in the Apollo program. The F-1 is still the most powerful single-chamber liquid-fueled rocket engine ever...

s in the lower stage and J-2

J-2 (rocket engine)

Rocketdyne's J-2 rocket engine was a major component of the Saturn V rocket used in the Apollo program to send men to the Moon. Five J-2 engines were used on the S-II second stage, and one J-2 was used on the S-IVB third stage. The S-IVB was also used as the second stage of the smaller Saturn IB...

s in the uppers. This design placed 24 tons in a lunar injection trajectory. These designs were presented to President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...

 on January 27, 1959.

The Nova designs were not the only lunar rockets being considered at the time. The US Air Force was in the process of defining its Lunex Project

Lunex Project

The Lunex Project was a US Air Force 1958 plan for a manned lunar landing prior to the Apollo Program. The final lunar expedition plan in 1961 was for a 21-airman underground Air Force base on the Moon by 1968 at a total cost of $ 7.5 billion....

, including a massive booster design using a cluster of solid fuel

Solid rocket

A solid rocket or a solid-fuel rocket is a rocket engine that uses solid propellants . The earliest rockets were solid-fuel rockets powered by gunpowder; they were used by the Chinese in warfare as early as the 13th century and later by the Mongols, Arabs, and Indians.All rockets used some form of...

 rockets in the lower stage with liquid hydrogen

Liquid hydrogen

Liquid hydrogen is the liquid state of the element hydrogen. Hydrogen is found naturally in the molecular H2 form.To exist as a liquid, H2 must be pressurized above and cooled below hydrogen's Critical point. However, for hydrogen to be in a full liquid state without boiling off, it needs to be...

-powered uppers mounting the J-2 or M-1

M-1 (rocket engine)

Aerojet's M-1 was the largest and most powerful liquid hydrogen-fueled rocket engine to be designed and built. The M-1 offered a baseline thrust of 6.67 million N and 8 million N as its immediate growth target...

. Meanwhile, at the US Army's Redstone Arsenal

Redstone Arsenal

Redstone Arsenal is a United States Army base and a census-designated place adjacent to Huntsville in Madison County, Alabama, United States and is part of the Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area...

, Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun

Wernher Magnus Maximilian, Freiherr von Braun was a German rocket scientist, aerospace engineer, space architect, and one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Nazi Germany during World War II and in the United States after that.A former member of the Nazi party,...

 was developing his "Juno V" design, using a cluster of Jupiter and Redstone related engines and tanks for a lower stage, a Titan I missile as the second stage.

In 1959 the Army decided it was no longer interested in developing large boosters, for which it had no immediate need, and passed von Braun's team over to NASA. This left NASA with two large booster designs, their own Nova, and von Braun's recently renamed Saturn ("the one after Jupiter"). Over the next two years the competing NASA and Air Force studies continued, but immediately following President John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

's call to reach the moon before the end of the decade, NASA was given the mission and work on Lunex ended.

Originally, NASA had designed Nova for the "direct ascent

Direct ascent

Direct ascent was a proposed method for a mission to the Moon. In the United States, direct ascent proposed using the enormous Nova rocket to launch a spacecraft directly to the Moon, where it would land tail-first and then launch off the Moon back to Earth...

" mission profile, in which a single large spacecraft would be placed in earth orbit. Dr. von Braun favoured a profile that built up the spaceship in Earth orbit, which reduced the launch mass needed for any one launch. However, as studies into the spacecraft needed for the mission started, it became clear that the systems would be much heavier than initially suspected; the existing Nova designs were too small, and the original Saturn design would need up to fifteen launches to put all the parts and fuel into orbit. A redesign of both plans followed.

Nova was still targeting the direct ascent approach, which required the most lift capacity. The most powerful of the resulting "normal" designs, the 8L, included eight F-1's in the lower stage and placed 68 tons in a translunar trajectory. Other designs in the series replaced the F-1s with large solids, while others studied nuclear rocket

Nuclear thermal rocket

In a nuclear thermal rocket a working fluid, usually liquid hydrogen, is heated to a high temperature in a nuclear reactor, and then expands through a rocket nozzle to create thrust. In this kind of thermal rocket, the nuclear reactor's energy replaces the chemical energy of the propellant's...

 engines for the upper stages. Lunar payload for the various models varied between 48 and 75 tons.

A number of upgraded Saturns were also studied. Dr. von Braun's original Saturn design became the A-1 model, while the A-2 replaced the Titan missile with a Jupiter. The more powerful B-1 model used a cluster of Titans for its second stage, but was otherwise similar to the A-1. More "radical" proposals, those requiring new engines, were lumped together in the "C series". C-1 was similar to the A-1, but used new upper stages derived from Titan engines, while the similar C-2 used new J-2 powered upper stages. C-3 through C-5 used the same J-2 powered uppers, but added a new first stage powered by three, four, or five F-1 engines (hence the names). Dr. von Braun's favoured approach remained Earth Orbit Rendezvous

Earth orbit rendezvous

Earth orbit rendezvous is a type of space rendezvous and a spaceflight methodology most notable for enabling round trip human missions to the moon...

 (EOR), but this time based on two Saturn C-3's.

The debate between the various approaches came to a head in 1961, and the outcome was unexpected by both teams. Instead of either the direct ascent or earth orbit rendezvous, the working group instead selected a third option, Lunar Orbit Rendezvous

Lunar orbit rendezvous

Lunar orbit rendezvous is a key concept for human landing on the Moon and returning to Earth.In a LOR mission a main spacecraft and a smaller lunar module travel together into lunar orbit. The lunar module then independently descends to the lunar surface. After completion of the mission there, a...

 (LOR). LOR had a mass requirement about mid-way between the Saturn C-3 and Nova 8L. After studying what would be required to modify either booster to the new requirement of about 200,000 lb in low earth orbit

Low Earth orbit

A low Earth orbit is generally defined as an orbit within the locus extending from the Earth’s surface up to an altitude of 2,000 km...

 (LEO), it seemed that the Saturn C-5 would be the best solution. The C-2 model would also be built as a testbed system, launching subassemblies into orbit for flight testing before the C-5 would be ready. The main determinant in selecting the Saturn over the Nova was that the Saturn C-5 could be built in an existing factory outside New Orleans, later known as the Michoud Assembly Facility

Michoud Assembly Facility

The Michoud Assembly Facility is an 832-acre site owned by NASA and located in New Orleans East, a large district within the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Organizationally, it is part of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center...

, while the larger diameter Nova would need new factories to be built.

Studies on the Nova series continued into 1962 as a backup for Saturn, but were eventually ended as the Saturn-based LOR profile became engrained.

Mars rockets

As the Apollo program continued, NASA designers started looking at their needs for the post-Apollo era, and it appeared that a manned mission to Mars

Manned mission to Mars

A manned mission to Mars has been the subject of science fiction, engineering, and scientific proposals throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century...

 would be the next "obvious" step. For this role the Saturn V was far too small, and a second series of Nova design studies started for launchers of up to 1 million pounds delivered to LEO. Unlike the original Nova series which was designed by NASA, the new designs were studied under contract by the major aerospace companies that did not receive major Apollo-related contracts, namely General Dynamics

General Dynamics

General Dynamics Corporation is a U.S. defense conglomerate formed by mergers and divestitures, and as of 2008 it is the fifth largest defense contractor in the world. Its headquarters are in West Falls Church , unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, in the Falls Church area.The company has...

 and Martin Marietta

Martin Marietta

Martin Marietta Corporation was an American company founded in 1961 through the merger of The Martin Company and American-Marietta Corporation. The combined company became a leader in chemicals, aerospace, and electronics. In 1995, it merged with Lockheed Corporation to form Lockheed Martin. The...

. Philip Bono

Philip Bono

Philip Bono was a Douglas Aircraft Company engineer. He was a pioneer of reusable vertical landing single-stage to orbit launch vehicles....

 at Douglas Aircraft decided to send in his own unsolicited proposals as well.

All of the companies submitted a wide variety of designs. Many of these were based on existing technology, suitably enlarged. For instance, Martin's smallest design, the 1B, used fourteen F-1s in the first stage and had a LEO payload of 662,000 lb, over three times that of the Saturn V. They also suggested a number of "advanced" designs using the latest (undeveloped) technology, notably aerospike engine

Aerospike engine

The aerospike engine is a type of rocket engine that maintains its aerodynamic efficiency across a wide range of altitudes through the use of an aerospike nozzle. It is a member of the class of altitude compensating nozzle engines. A vehicle with an aerospike engine uses 25–30% less fuel at low...

s.

Soon after the proposals were submitted, it became clear that post-Apollo funding would be considerably less. NASA abandoned their Nova plans in 1964.

The name "Nova" was used in over thirty large rocket proposals/studies from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Some other specific names given to the proposals were:

Douglas

• Nova DAC ISI
• Nova-1 DAC
• Nova-2 DAC

General Dynamics

• Nova C
• Nova D
• Nova GD-B
• Nova GD-E
• Nova GD-F
• Nova GD-H
• Nova GD-J

Martin Marietta

• Nova MM 14A
• Nova MM 14B
• Nova MM 1B
• Nova MM 1C
• Nova MM 24G
• Nova MM 33
• Nova MM 34
• Nova MM R10E-2
• Nova MM R10R-2
• Nova MM S10E-1
• Nova MM S10E-2
• Nova MM S10R-1
• Nova MM S10R-2
• Nova MM T10EE-1
• Nova MM T10RE-1
• Nova MM T10RR-2
• Nova MM T10RR-3

NASA

• Nova 4L
• Nova NASA
• Nova 4S
• Nova 5S
• Nova 7S
• Nova 8L
• Nova 8L Mod
• Nova 9L

Convair

• Nova A
• Nova B

Specifications for Nova C8

	First stage	Second stage	Third stage
Length	48.8 m	42.7 m	17.8 m
Diameter	12.2 m	10.1 m	6.6 m
Full mass	3,600,000 kg (8,000,000 lb)	771,000 kg (1,700,000 lb)	120,000 kg (264,500 lb)
Empty mass	181,400 kg (400,000 lb)	63,500 kg (140,000 lb)	13,310 kg (29,350 lb)
Number of engines	8 x F-1	8 x J-2	1 x J-2
Thrust	61,925 kN (13,920,000 lbf)	8,265 kN (1,860,000 lbf)	1,032 kN (232,000 lbf)
ISP	304 s (2.98 kN·s/kg)	425 s (4.17 kN·s/kg)	425 s (4.17 kN·s/kg)
Burn time	157 s	338 s	475 s
Propellants	Lox/Kerosene	Lox/LH2	Lox/LH2

External links

• Encyclopedia Astronautica entry