HobbySpace - Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) Information

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X-15 lands at Edwards AFB

Links to resources about the history of reusable launch and space vehicles. Also includes info on various rocket powered aircraft.

General

Space Transport News (Sept. 2005- present) - (Formerly RLV News) in dynamically generated weblog format
- RLV News Archive April 1999 - September 2005 -directory to static hypertext format pages
Reusable Launch and Space Vehicle Table
Astronautix.com - Mark Wade provides lots of material on many RLV projects including those that never got past the design stage, e.g. Dynosaur, and those actually built, e.g. X-15.
(See also the Table of Vehicle Designs at SpaceFuture.)
FAA- Commercial Space Transportation
- 2007 Developments and Concepts report - FAA - Feb.2007 (pdf)
- FAA website was "upgraded" in 2007 and most of the links to it were broken. You may , however, be able to track down these and other reports via their Reports & Studies section.
  - 2001 Programs and Concepts (pdf) - Jan.2002
  - 2000 Reusable Launch Vehicles - Programs and Concepts-(pdf), - January 2001
  - 1999 Reusable Launch Vehicles Programs and Concepts (pdf) - January 2000
  - Reusable Launch Vehicles Programs and Concepts - January 1999
  - Reusable Launch Vehicles Programs and Concepts - January 1998
  - RLV Licensing Approaches - 1999
RLV Conference Reports
Papers/Reports of Historical Interest:
- Introduction to Future Launch Vehicle Plans 1963-2001 - M. Lindroos
- Douglas "Ithacus" - 1964 - Marcus Lindroos
- The Quest for Single Stage Earth-to-Orbit: TAV, NASP, DC-X and X-33 Accomplishments, Deficiencies, and Why They Did Not Fly by Ramon Chase (ANSER) and Ming Tang (NASA) - pdf, 90kb - presented at a 2002 Hypersonics Conference
- Gary Hudson:
  - Phoenix M: A Small SSTO Launch Vehicle for Commercial Space Transport Missions - Aug.1989 - Space Future
  - History of the Phoenix VTOL SSTO and Recent Developments in Single-Stage Launch Systems- Space Future - Gary Hudson article, from 1991
  - A Single-Stage-to-Orbit Thought Experiment - Space Future - 1991
  - X-ROCKET, Phoenix RLV: Gary Hudson's papers on the history of RLV's [These links at Marcus Lindroos site are broken. Trying to find other copies.]
- Way Have NASA? - Jerry Pournelle testimony to Subcommittee on Space, March 16, 1995. Other Space Papers &he SSX Concept.
- The Space Shuttle Decision: NASA's Search for a Reusable Space Vehicle by T.A. Heppenheimer - 1999 (sp4221) - NASA History
- VTOVL - Astronautix - list of various Vertical Takeoff and vertical landing vehicle designs.
- "A Guide To Lifting Re-Entry Vehicles, Volume 1" - Scott Lowther
- Wingless Flight: The Lifting Body Story by R. Dale Reed - on line book - entire book including images in hypertext format
- Fact Sheets - MSFC Advanced Transportation
- See the Russia section below for links to Soviet/Russian RLV reviews.
Other RLV Related News, Articles, Events
- The NeXt Generation - Air & Space Mag.
- Filling a Hole in the Sky - AsiaWeek, October 23, 1998
- Fortune Mag: 2.2.97 Blasting Off the Cheap Way
- Bob Truax offered back in the late 1970s a detailed design for a high-altitude (80km) sub-orbital rocket that was simple and cheap enough for a private company to build. (Gary Hudson's Osiris and Phoenix were much larger vehicles and intended for orbit.) The article Be Your Own Astronaut (If Bob Truax Gets His Way) - by Paul Siegler - L5 News Vol. 3 Num. 4 April 1978 (pdf 1.1MB) describes Project Private Enterprise that sought to build the reusable Volks-Rocket for $1 million.

Past RLV & Rocketplane Projects in US

SpaceShipOne
Advent Launch Services (Civilian Astronaut Corp) - the plans to take reservations for space tourism flights were dropped in April 99 (62 people had put down deposits but they needed 2000 to fund the vehicle.) Now the group concentrates on the X Prize.
- RLV News Item
- Space Tourism Company Shuts Down - Spaceviews - Apr.15.99
Pioneer Rocketplane / Rocketplane Ltd. / Rocketplane Global/ Rocketplane Kistler
- This organization has gone through several transformations over the years:
  - In the 1990s it began as Pioneer Rocketplane and it pursued a system that consisted of a suborbital spaceplane that would be refueled in flight and used for launching small comsats via an unmanned second stage.
  - In early 2000s it changed into a company focused on suborbital space tourism with a vehicle called the Rocketplane XP based on a modified Learjet airframe.
  - In 2006 the firm bought Kistler Aerospace and won a COTS contract to demonstrate ISS resupply with the K-1 vehicle.
  - The company divided itself into two parts: Rocketplane-Kistler to develop the K-1 and Rocketplane-Global to pursue the suborbital tourism market with the XP.
  - In 2007 the company unveiled a totally new design for the suborbital vehicle with an airframe built from scratch rather than from the Learjet.
  - The company's COTS contract was terminated after the company failed to raise $500M in private capital.
- See the RLV Countdown section for info on current efforts at the company.
- Rand Simberg interview with Mitchell Burnside Clapp - Jan.3.05
- The O Prize: Will Rocketplane launch spacecraft from Oklahoma? - Air & Space Magazine - Oct.07 issue
- It's a Rocket! It's a Plane! It's...Rocket Plane! - Popular Science - Aug.06
- Rocketplane is big in Japan - Space Review - Apr.3.06
- Special Report on Rocketplane - Rockets Away! - Jan.06
- Astronaut Herrington makes no bones about it - Space Review - Oct.3.05
- Space Cowboys - Oklahoma Gazette/AltWeeklies - July.13.05
- Rocket plane venture star (part 1) - The Space Review - Mar.21.05
  - Rocket plane venture star (part 2) - The Space Review - Mar.28.05
- It's about engineering at Rocketplane - The Space Review - Mar.21.05
- Oklahoma is OK for suborbital - The Space Review - July.5.04
- Web site history at the archive.org
- Testimony of Mr. Mitchell Burnside Clapp - House Subcomittee -Oct.13.99
Rotary Rocket Company
- Rotary shut down all of its projects by the end of 2000. Gary Hudson left the company earlier to work at HMX and to pursue other interests. The Mojave facility was closed after an auction of most of its contents. Rights to the various technologies, e.g. composite fuel tanks, that were developed by the company were sold to XCOR, a company founded by several former Rotary employees.
- Copy of Rotary's website at web.archive.org
  - According to date
- March 1999 ATV Rollout -Jerry Pournelle's page of photos and commentary
- YouTube - The Roton Rocket (orphansofapollo.com)
- ATV test flights:
  - 1st [July 23,99] - hoover
  - 2nd [Sep 20,99] - extended hoover
    - YouTube - Roton ATV Second Flight
  - 3rd [Oct 12,99]- first translational flight - Rotary Rocket - Air & Space - video
- 3-D Model of Roton
- Pictures from the Roton/ATV Rollout - Ian Kluft
- Gary C. Hudson - House Subcommittee - Oct.13,99
- Gary Hudson's congressional testimony Feb. 1998 - Good afternoon, Chairman Rohrabacher and members of the committee
- Scaled Composites: Rotary Rocket Roton ATV
- ROTON - Classic Rotors Museum
- Rotary Rocket - Wikipedia
- Articles & Reports:
  - Rotary Rocket's Last Journey - Alan's Mojave Weblog - Nov.12.06
  - Celebrating Veterans' Day, Mojave-Style! - Alans Mojave Weblog - Nov.12.06
  - Rotary Rocket Pays Taxes, Recovers Roton - Space.com - Jan.02.01
  - Cheap Space Travel / Rotary rocket among ideas seeking cash - SF Gate - July.22.97
  - The Roton Concept by Gary C. Hudson - reprint at IslandOne.org (circa 1996)
  - Insanely Great? or Just Plain Insane? - Wired - May.1996 - debut of the Roton concept. In this version the propulsion is primarily from short, rocket tipped rotors.
Space Access, LLC (WaybackMachine.org - last entry Feb.2004) - this company had a scramjet/rocket combo design for the first stage vehicle that would carry a rocket powered booster to take a payload to orbit. The firm was run by well-respected people from the hypersonics research field. They needed a multi-billion dollar investment, however, to get it to fly.
- Long articles in Aviation Week, March 30, 1998 and Popular Science, June 1999.
- Testimony of Steve Wurst at House Committee Oct.13.99 (NASA Watch)
- Space Access Space Transportation Architecture study(pdf) for NASA
- Stephen Wurst (President, Space Access) testimony at Commercial Space Launch Industry Hearing, September 23, 1998
- Lost in Space Could the former Homestead Air Force Base become a launch pad for satellites? Sure -- when pigs fly. - Miami Times - Aug.20.98
- Spaceviews - May 1998 by Jeff Foust (search this page for "Wurst")
- Corpus Christi May Be Launch Pad for Space Tourism - KRISTV.COM (Corpus Christi) - Dec.14.07
Defunct Suborbital Projects
- Kittyhawk Technologies- formerly Cerulean Freight Forwarding - closed shop February 2003
- Lone Star Space Access
  - Cosmos Mariner Spaceplane
  - Venezuela hopes to offer vacations on the moon - CNN.com - November 3, 2000
  - Houston Business Journal Oct.98
- Pan Aero SabreRocket - X Prize entry
  - Len Cormier's plan to use a modified Sabre-40
  - TourToSpace
- Space Transport
  - X PRIZE team page.
  - Forks Firm Plans Rocket Launch - KIROTV.com - Dec.2.03
- Vela Technology
  - Space Cruiser
  - Sky Lifter
SSX - Space Ship eXperimental - concept that led to the DC-X project
- The SSX Design for Flight Safety by Max Hunter - SpaceEquity - Jan.2000
- SSX: New- technology spacecraft - reprint of an Ad Astra article
- Access to Space: SSX by Jim Ransom, 1991 - reprint at SpaceFuture.com - includes afterword by Jerry Pournelle.
- The SSX Concept (1989) - Jerry E. Pournelle
  - Getting To Space (July 2002) - Jerry E. Pournelle
  - SSX2 - Citizens Advisory Council on National Space Policy March 20, 1994
Truax Engineering Multimedia Archive, Thomas Duffey has collected a great number of articles and videos dealing with the various rockets designed by Robert Truax.
X-Planes General Info
- The X Planes - Code One Magazine [Lockheed Martin] - Spring 2001 - photos and specs for all the X vehicles.
- NASA Dryden Research Aircraft Photo Collection
X-1 (XS-1)
X-15 - the first reusable rocketship
- The X-15 Rocket Plane
- X-Planes - J. Mustain- X-15
- X-Planes History
- Hypersonics Before the Shuttle: A concise history of the X-15 Resarch Airplane by Dennis R. Jenkins, June 2000, NASA Publication SP-2000-4518
- Fiddlers Green X-15 Reference Library
- Transiting from Air to Space The North American X-15 - NASA
- X-15 Lessons Learned - Bill Dana
- X-15 "No-Go" - Thommy Eriksson - unflown vehicles
- Navaho - T. Johnson - Space Launch Report - discusses the proposed X-15B high altitude version that would have used a Navajo first stage booster.
- Edwards Air Force Base - the history section includes articles about the X-15, e.g.
  - Expanding the X-15 Envelope to Mach 6.7 - A Personal Account
- NASA Dryden X-15 Graphics Gallery
- X-15 Walkaround: A short guide to the fastest airplane ever - Air & Space - Oct/Nov 2007
- The Real X-Men: Life came at you fast when you flew the X-15 - Air & Space - Oct/Nov 2007
- VIDEO: Bill Dana Profile: In this NASA documentary, the X-15 pilot reveals his worst fear: embarrassing himself in front of his peers - Air & Space - Oct/Nov.07
- Make Your Own X-15: Download and build your own paper model - Air & Space - Oct/Nov.07
- X-15: The Hollywood Version: Charles Bronson starred. The Pentagon had a few minor corrections - Air & Space - Oct/Nov.2007
X-20 and Other Semi-Reusable Spaceplane Projects
- Dyna-Soar/X-20 - Mark Wade
- X-20 Dyna Soar Design Scrapbook
- The story of the Dyna-Soar - NasaSpaceFlight.com - Jan.7.06
- Dyna-Soar: Hypersonic Strategic Weapons System - Space.com - July.23.03 - interview with Robert Godwin
- History of the Dyna-Soar by Steven Strom - Crosslink - Winter 2004
- Dynasoar at Astronautix
  - Robo - rocket bomber concept, predecessor to Dynasoar
  - Bomi - Bell manned skip-glide space bomber project of the 1950's. Predecessor to Dynasoar
- Lifting Body Prototypes:
  - Lifting Bodies - US Centennial of Flight
  - HL-10 - NASA
  - M2-F2, M2-F3, HL-10, X-24A, and the X-24B lifting body prototypes used the Reaction Motors XLR-11 rocket engine, first used on the X-1, later on the initial X-15 flights
  - X-24A
  - X-24B
  - Wingless Flight: The Lifting Body Story by R. Dale Reed - this on line book includes several sections on the rocket powered aspects of the programs.
- Hermes - Mark Wade
- Other manned spaceplane/rocketplane projects at Mark Wade's Astronautix

Rocketdyne AR2-3 engine provide boosts for the NF-104 aerospace trainer.
Used operationally, for 7 years in the 1960's and now intended for the X-37.

Rocket-assisted F-104
- NF-104 Space Pilot Trainer
- USAF Museum Archives - Lockheed NF-104
- Lockheed F-104 Starfighter
- F-104 Zero Length Launch Video - Air & Space Magazine - rocket launched test version.
- Starfighters - airshow demo team (non-rocket versions)
  - Aircraft gallery
Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket
Lenticular Vehicles - Astronautix - Mark Wade reports on studies during 1959-1964 by NASA and the US Air Force of saucer shaped vehicle designs.
NASA / US Military
- DC-X
  - Delta Clipper/SSRT Archive
  - DC-X & DC-XA at NASA History Office -
    - Flight test archive - table of flights
  - McDonnell Douglas DC-X - Wikipedia
  - DC-XA Crash Investigation Report
  - Commercial Space, Single Stage to Orbit SSTO by Donald F. Robertson (circa 1993) - discusses DC-X and DC-Y development.
  - DC-X / DC-XA - Gunter's Space Page
  - Mitchell Burnside Clapp - Hour 25 - December 2001 -a webcast of an interview with Clapp who talks a lot about the DC-X and his experiences on the project.
  - Video (8MB) (31MB version) by Chris Hanson of the second DC-X flight in September 1993, and of scenes before and after. Posted at Armadillo Aerospace.
  - Universal Space Lines - DC-X - USL was founded by Pete Conrad and several other people previously involved with the DC-X project. The page includes a flight video.
  - Scaled Composites: DCX
  - Precision_Landing_and_Hazard_Avoidance (pdf) - 1995 - Boeing slides
  - Rocket on a Round Trip : Blasting off is easy--any rocket can do that. Climbing to Orbit in a single stage is harder. Coming back and landing on your feet is harder still. Can the Delta Clipper do all that? Nasa hopes so. - Discover - May.1995
- NASA Studies:

Military Studies
- AF2025 v3c12-1 | A Hypersonic Attack Platform: The S3 Concept - 1996
- Starclipper - 1966 - Max Hunter
HL-20 "Personal Launch System"
X-33/VentureStar
- Program canceled
- Venturestar at archive.org
- NASA X-33 at archive.org
- X-33 History - maintains an ongoing Timeline
- X-33 Flight Operations Center fact sheet
- X-33 fact sheet
- X-33 Slide Show - Aug.24-99 briefing.
- YouTube - X-33 / VentureStar - LM/NASA promotional video
- Congressional Hearing, Sept. 29.99 - posted by NASA Watch
- X-33 - Space Activists
- X-33/VentureStar - What really happened - Jan.4.06 - NASASpaceflight.com by Chris Bergin
- X-33B
  - Future-X at NASA History
- Shockwave X33 report at Florida Sun-Sentinel
- Human Access to Space: An Introduction to RLVs - Cornell undergraduate site with lots of info on the X-33 failure, overviews of RLV issues, TPS, etc.
- Articles:
X-33 Aerospike Engine Development
X-34
X-37 - unmanned orbital test vehicle, main test bed for the OSP. NASA pulled of of the program in 2004. DARPA/AF took over the project.
- X-37B OTV (Orbital Test Vehicle) - AF vehicle to be launched in 2008
- X-37 - Space Transportation - MSFC
- Boeing X-37 - Wikipedia
- X-37 Demonstrator to Test Future Launch Technologies in Orbit and Reentry Environments - MSFC FactSheet - May.03
- NASA/Boeing Press Release - July 14,1999
- X-37 artwork at Media Fusion
- Artwork at Dryden
- Peroxide engine project at Aerojet
- Boeing X-37 / X-40 at Directory of US Military Rockets & Missiles
- Overlaps with X-40 project, which is a sub-scale version of the X-37
- Articles:
X-38: ISS Reusable Crew Return Vehicle
X-40& Military Spaceplanes
Orbital Space Plane (OSP) - Canceled in favor of CEV program
- This vehicle was to become the main goal of NASA's space transportation development plans. It would provide for crew return from the ISS as of 2010 and carry out crew transfers to the ISS by 2012. It will initially be launched atop an EELV.
- Space Launch Initiative News:
- Development Timeline Chart at Spaceref
- OSP/ Integrated Space Transportation Plans - NASA Watch
- Orbital Space Plane - Orbital Sciences
  - Fact Sheet (pdf, 669kb)
- OSP at Lockheed-Martin
- Pad Abort Demonstration (PAD)

MoreArticles

RASCAL - "Responsive Access, Small Cargo, and Affordable Launch Demonstration"
Shuttle Flyback-Booster & Other Upgrades
- Upgrading the Space Shuttle - National Academy of Sciences Report
CCTV (Crew/Cargo Transfer Vehicle) - earlier discussions of CCTV
- Michael Griffin of Orbital Sciences discusses its Space Taxi at House hearing in October 1999.
- Crew/Cargo Transfer Vehicle Preliminary Requirements - Reston.com
Alternate Access to Station (AAS) - program to use commercial launchers to supply the ISS

Hypersonic Projects
- NASA Next Generation Launch Technology (NGLT) - [Wayback machine archive]
  - Turbine-Based Combined Cycle (TBCC) / Revolutionary Turbine Accelerator (RTA) - [Wayback Machine archive]
  - Rocket-Based Combined Cycle (RBCC) / Integrated System Test of an Air-breathing Rocket (ISTAR) - [Wayback Machine archive]
- Strutjet
  - Aerojet Strutjet technology - rocket/scramjet design [link dead]
- X-30
  - X-30 at Astronautix
  - NASP X-30 - FAS
NASA and Marshall Space Flight Center Image Gallery at FusionOnline - FusionOnline produces artwork for NASA of various programs such as the X-34 and other experimental vehicles.
Contractors for these various projects
- Lockheed Martin Reusable Space Transportation Systems
- Boeing
  - Highly Reusable Space Systems at archive.org
  - Boeing FutureX
- Northrop
- Orbital Sciences

Past RLV Projects Outside of USA

German Rocketplanes:
- Von Braun Rocketplane (1939) -Astronautix
- The Mitsubishi J8M Shusui - Japanese version of the Me 163 built during WWII. Discusses both the me 163 and the earlier He 176.
- Opel Sander Raketen - (1929) - "a glider powered with 16 rockets of 50 pounds of thrust each, made successful flight of 75 seconds, covering almost 2 miles near Frankfort-am-Main, Germany, [Fritz ] Von Opel as pilot." NASA Timeline . See also History of Rocketry Chapter 3 Early 20th Century - Spaceline.org
- He 176 V1(1937) - liquid fueled rocketplane built by Ernst Heinkel.
- German Hypersonic Bomber Prototype
- Hellmuth Walter
  - Walter Rocket Motors for Aircraft
  - Assisted Takeoff Motors
- The Komet - Messerschmitt 163:
- Sänger Bomber:
  - Sänger Amerika Bomber Luft '46 entry
Chinese RLV(?):
- Chinese Manned Space Program at Mark Wade's Encyclopedia
  - Tsien Spaceplane 1978 - Mark Wade
  - Tsien Spaceplane 1949 - Mark Wade
  - CZ-2 Spaceplane Launcher - Mark Wade
  - Project 921-3 Shuttle - Mark Wade
Britain
- HTP Rockets - British Rockets - Nicholas Hill's history of British rocketry.
- Rocket Interceptors and the SR53 - Nicholas Hill- used De Havilland Spectre liquid propellant rocket engine with 8,000lbs thrust. Used in combination with a turbojet on the SR53. Two prototypes were built, one lost on first flight. Tech data
- SR.53 mixed powerplant fighter
- Spectre - George A. Frodsham
- History of HOTOL and Skylon
Europe:
- Technology Development in Structures for Reusable Launch Vehicles - FESTIP design study.
- European launchers after Ariane 5 - by Fredrick Engström, ESA Director of Launchers
- CNES HERMES - Marcus Lindroos
- Hermes: Lessons Learnt by Martin Bayer, 1994 (pdf, 936kb,at Marcus Lindroos)
- SSTO The UK Experience by Mark Hempsell - SpaceEquity.com
- SEPR 844 - French rocket engine used for takeoff assist, first flown in 1952. Used on Mirage III jets from 1957 through 1984.
Japan
- The Mitsubishi J8M Shusui - (Japanese version of the Me 163 built during WWII
- ATREX Engine
- National Aerospace Lab:
- NASDA HOPE [1988] - Marcus Lindroos
- NASDA HOPE-X [1990s] - Marcus Lindroos
- NASDA