Page 107 - MY STORY

design folk, in conjunction with NASA, began to look

beyond the 1969 moon expedition launch.

NASA was showing an interest in a large Earth-orbiting

space station. Toward that end, they were considering the
design and development of very large launch systems that
could carry tons of payload to near-earth-orbit using only

a liquid-fueled single-stage rocket. To lower cost and
complexity, NASA was evaluating a “pressure-fed” fuel
system rather than a “pump fed” system to deliver fuel to

the rocket engine injectors. This meant that the launch
vehicle tank would have to withstand very high internal

pressures and would have to use high strength metals to
meet the inert weight requirements, while potentially
containing cryogenic oxidizers like liquid oxygen.

Aluminum was not strong enough, titanium was too
expensive and the standard medium carbon – low alloy

steels could not handle the cryogenic temperatures
required. A newly developed high-alloy steel, called
Maraging Steel seemed to fit the bill. It could be heat

treated to very high strengths and appeared to maintain its
ductility and toughness to very low temperatures
approaching -320 degrees F.