Hyperion 1958
Launch vehicle · USA
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Hyperion Interplanetary Spacecraft
Credit: © Mark Wade
American nuclear-powered orbital launch vehicle. Hyperion was considered in 1958 as a ca. 1970 Saturn follow-on. It used a small jettisonable chemical booster stage that contained chemical engines and the LOX oxidizer for the conventional engines.
This booster stage surrounded the nuclear core vehicle with its large liquid hydrogen tank. The conventional stage would draw fuel from the main hydrogen tank until burnout. Hyperion would have doubled the translunar trajectory performance of the Saturn V and less than one third of the liftoff mass.
LEO Payload: 145,000 kg (319,000 lb) to a 485 km orbit at 28.00 degrees. Payload: 82,000 kg (180,000 lb) to a earth escape.