by GreeblerElf 

Nobody:
Me: OK, fine, I will make a model of one of the coolest NASA projects that never got built, the Star Raker.

It's 1978 and you're NASA and you're all like "hey, we want to go to space more and make it easier. I know, why don't we just make a big ol' space plane and just fill it up with rockets and explosive fuel. It will fly off the ground up to the sky and then kick on those rockets and BAM - 1970s sci-fi action."

In 1978, NASA and DOE were looking for some cool new thing to build and they had Rockwell (maker of the B1 Bomber) draw up some awesome sketches. Fortunately for tax payers, it was never built. But unfortunately for retro sci-fi nerds, it was never built. Anyway, the idea was a huge delta wing (bigger than a 747) full of fuel(s?) and a fuselage that could be used to store all kinds of.. stuff, a nosecone that opened up like a cargo plane and... did I mention rockets?! Then... somehow... profit.

This was a fun model to design. I hope you enjoy building and playing with it. It's just 3 simple pieces, (1) the bulk of the body, (2) the aft section with thrusters, and (3) a vertical tail. Print the tail flat on the side, and the body section standing up vertically. Print the aft section thruster side up. Now you're in the space biz!

Credits:
Original artwork by M. Alvarez of Rockwell
Idea by NASA
This 3D model: by me, GreeblerElf

Definitely check out this cool blog on the project:
http://spaceflighthistory.blogspot.com/2020/09/star-raker-1978.html

Print Settings

Printer brand:

Creality

Printer:

Ender 3

Rafts:

No

Supports:

No

Resolution:

0.2

Infill:

10%

Filament_brand:

Overture

Filament_color:

Any

Filament_material:

PLA

How I Designed This

Designed in OnShape

Created planes for cross sections of the model along the fuselage and lofted those forms together.