Nova (rocket)

Nova was a series of U.S. missile developments, with the help of large payloads to the moon and later to Mars should be transported. Nova is not the name of a rocket, but the name given to several concepts for a rocket larger than the Saturn V. There were two separate missile developments under the name Nova, who had except the name nothing to do with each other. The development ended in 1964 without result.

Development

In April 1961, President John F. Kennedy set the goal to take until 1970 manned lunar flights, the time was not sufficient for the construction of a completely new rocket. So we decided to bring out the Saturn launch vehicle. Despite the From Nova for the moon landing was developed the concept further to later be able to transport larger loads to the moon and to perform a manned flight to Mars. But despite huge investments in the development of the rocket and the purchase of a site for a larger launch pad, the program was finally abandoned in 1964. The later the Saturn V was more powerful than the first Nova designs.

The later Nova models should be used for direct flights to Mars, the payload in low earth orbit was several hundred tons.