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Links to resources about the history of reusable launch
and space vehicles. Also includes info on various rocket
powered aircraft.
General
History of Private/Commercial
Orbital RLV & Rocketplane Projects in US
- Advent
Launch Services (Civilian Astronaut Corp) - planned
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.) Continues
as a vehicle development effort.
- HARC
Space - Greg Allison/Tim Pickens
- Kelly Space
and Technology
- 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
in late 2007 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
- Rocketplane-Kistler
T
- K-1 two-stage fully reusable launcher
- Other Rocketplane Articles:
- Rotary Rocket Company
- 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.
- Tour2Space-
The company of late Len Cormier's
- Bob Truax:
History of Suborbital Spaceflight Reusable Vehicle
Projects
Government Projects
- SSX - Space Ship eXperimental
- concept that led to the DC-X
project
- X-Planes General Info
- X-1 (XS-1)
- X-15 - the first reusable rocketship
- X-20 and Other Semi-Reusable
Spaceplane Projects
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.
- DC-X
- Misc. Studies
- X-33/VentureStar
- 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-38: ISS Reusable Crew Return
Vehicle
- X-40& Military Spaceplanes
- Orbital Space Plane (OSP)
- Canceled in favor of CEV program
- RASCAL - "Responsive
Access, Small Cargo, and Affordable Launch Demonstration"
- DARPA project canceled due to underperformance and
overruns.
-
-
- CCTV (Crew/Cargo Transfer
Vehicle) - earlier discussions of CCTV
- Michael
Griffin of Orbital Sciences discusses its
Space Taxi at House hearing in October
1999.
- Alternate Access to Station
(AAS) - program to use commercial launchers to
supply the ISS
- COTS - Commercial Orbital
Transportation Systems demonstration program
-
Hypersonic Projects
- Contractors for these various projects
- Lockheed Martin Reusable Space Transportation
Systems
-
Boeing
-
Northrop
-
Past RLV Projects Outside
of USA
- German Rocketplanes:
- Chinese RLV(?):
- Britain
- Europe:
- Japan
- Russian/Soviet Reusable
vehicles
- People who have made
major contributions to RLV designs and development
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