NEXUS (launch vehicle)
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The work of a group at General Dynamics led by Krafft Ehricke, the NEXUS was to represent the next leap beyond the Saturn V, carrying up to eight times more payload. Fully fueled, this 1969 design would weigh 24,000 tons, as much as an ocean-going freighter. It would carry a 1,000 tons to orbit, allowing it to launch a spaceship bound for Mars. This behemoth would have a diameter of 202 feet with its height approaching that of the Washington Monument. It would fly as a single-stage launch vehicle. Fully recoverable, it would touch down in the ocean following a return from orbit. Parachutes would slow its descent. Retro-rockets, firing during the last seconds, would assure a gentle landing. It was never built.
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