Liquid rocket booster
A liquid rocket booster (LRB) is similar to a solid rocket booster (SRB) attached to the side of a rocket to give it extra lift at takeoff. A liquid rocket booster has fuel and oxidiser in liquid form, as opposed to a solid rocket or hybrid rocket.
Like solid boosters, liquid boosters can considerably increase the total payload to orbit. Unlike solid boosters, LRBs can be throttled down and are also capable of being shut down safely in an emergency, providing additional escape options to manned spacecraft.
For the R-7 missile, which later evolved into the Soyuz rocket, this concept was chosen because it allows all of its many rocket engines to be ignited and checked for function with the rocket still on the launch pad.
The Ariane 4 space launch vehicle also optionally could use two or four LRBs (the 42L, 44L, and 44LP configurations). As an example of the payload increase that boosters provide, the basic Ariane 40 model with no boosters could launch around 2,175 kilograms into Geostationary transfer orbit . The 44L configuration could launch 4,790 kg to the same orbit with four liquid boosters added .
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and Dynetics entered the "advanced booster competition" for NASA's next human rated vehicle, after the retirement of the Space Shuttle, the Space Launch System(SLS), with a booster design known as "Pyrios", which would use two F-1B engines derived from the F-1 LOX/RP-1 engine that powered the first stage of the Saturn V vehicle in the Apollo program. In 2012, it was determined that if the dual-engined Pyrios booster was selected for the SLS Block II, the payload could be 150 metric tons (t) to Low Earth Orbit, 20 t more than the baseline 130 t to LEO for SLS Block II. In 2013, it was reported that in comparison to the F-1 engine that it is derived from, the F-1B engine is to have improved efficiency, be more cost effective and have fewer engine parts. Each F-1B is to produce 1,800,000 lbf (8.0 MN) of thrust at sea level, an increase over the 1,550,000 lbf (6.9 MN) of thrust of the initial F-1 engine.
Common Core Booster
The Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program produced new liquid fueled primary stages for the Atlas V and the Delta IV rockets called Common Core Booster (CCB) or Common Booster Core (CBC). These can be used alone (with possible strap-on solid rocket boosters) or in a configuration of three CCBs tied together
- "Dynetics PWR liquidize SLS booster competition". November 2012.
- "Dynetics reporting "outstanding" progress on F-1B rocket engine". Ars Technica. 2013-08-13. Retrieved 2013-08-13.
- Lee Hutchinson (2013-04-15). "New F-1B rocket engine upgrades Apollo-era design with 1.8M lbs of thrust". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2013-04-15.