Reusable Launch & Space Transport
Information Part 1 - General Info, US Projects,
X Prize
Flight test on Nov. 13, 2006 of
the Blue
Origin Goddard prototype space vehicle.
A fully reusable launch system is the key to providing
the low cost access to Space. Low cost access is in
turn the key to extensive human exploration and large
scale settlement of the solar system.
The Space Shuttle succeeded technically as a partially
reusable launcher but failed miserably economically.
It requires several thousand support personal and 2
months or more to rebuild a Shuttle for its next launch.
Shuttle launch costs are roughly $20,000/kg, which is
actually higher than most expendable launchers.
During the 1990s a number of RLV (Reusable Launch Vehicle)
startup companies appeared due to the promise of a lucrative
market for launching spacecraft for the low earth orbit
communications constellations that were then in development.
Unfortunately, the failures of Iridium, Globalstar,
and the other constellations pulled the rug out from
under these space transport companes and several disappeared
or went into long-term limbo.
The failures of several NASA projects, such as the
X-33
and X-34,
also discouraged government investment in RLV technology.
Bad design and poor management had more to do with these
failure than technical challenges but they nevertheless
convinced many in NASA and elsewhere that RLV technology
was not at hand.
Currently (circa 2008), the most intense RLV development
activity is taking place in the suborbital
spaceflight area. These vehicles are primarily intended
for space tourism but will also take over many of the
scientific applications carried out by sounding rockets.
SpaceX
hopes to proved that its Falcon rockets can be at least
partially reusable. The first stage for the Falcon I
and both stages of the Falcon 9 are designed to parachute
into the ocean for recovery and reuse.
The resources about such RLV projects & technology
present, past and future. The T
sign indicates that a project has an entry in the RLV
Table.
Also, included are in-space vehicles, which
can be launched in different ways. For example, such
a vehicle might be released in space from a shuttle
or launched on top of an expendable. They might operate
in space indefinitely or, in other cases, return to
earth to be used again for crew transport.
See the New
Launch Technologies section for resources related
to new conventional expendable and partially reusable
rocket vehicles. It also offers information and links
dealing with non-rocket types of transport such as space
elevators and laser
launchers. See the Hypersonic
Transport sections for resources related to scramjet
vehicles.
Note:
Many people complain that the term reusable launch
vehicle is clumsy and archaic. We don't, after
all, call airliners reusable takeoff vehicles!
The RLV term helps to perpetuate the myth that every
flight of a rocket powered vehicle is a lucky shot
and that such craft will never attain the high reliability
and lost cost operations of airliners.
However, in the next few years we will see robust
and reliable rocket powered suborbital vehicles begin
making daily flights, even multiple flights in a day.
It will then seem rather silly to talk about countdowns
and launches. They will simply takeoff when they are
ready, just like any other flying vehicle.
There is not been put forward a generally accepted
substitute term. The SpaceShipOne
success argues for spaceship but it still isn't
generally accepted. I'm gradually replacing the RLV
terminology here with space transport. However,
some other term, such as spaceliner, rocketship, etc
, may eventually become the more popular choice.
See the RLV
& Space Transport News section for
the latest on the development of RLV and other space
transportation technologies.
Flight Mechanics of Manned Sub-Orbital Reusable
Launch Vehicles with Recommendations for Launch
and Recovery Marti Sarigul-Klijn, Ph.D. and
Nesrin Sarigul-Klijn*, Ph.D. Mechanical &
Aeronautical Engineering Dept., Univ. of Calif.,
Davis AIAA
paper 2003-0909 (pdf, 910kb)
Ed
LeBouthillier has been doing some conceptual
design studies of very small, reusable orbital
launch vehicles that an amateur group or small
company might build. These papers focus on the
design of a first stage for such a system:
Asabooster
CD004 (pdf) - "a conceptual design for
a [VTHL] reusable rocket vehicle able to lift
152 lbs with a total delta velocity of 10000
feet per second vertically (not taking gravity
and aerodynamic losses into account)".
Asabooster
CD005 (pdf) - "an examination of a Vertical
Takeoff Vertical Landing (VTVL) rocket design
for a reusable rocket vehicle able to lift
two upper stages weighing a total of 163 lbs
on a trajectory suitable for a 115 mile altitude
orbit. The expected payload delivery to orbit
is about 5 pounds".
COTS - NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation
Services demonstration program involves contracting
with commercial space transport firms to deliver
a given amount of cargo to the International Space
Station each year. Eventually this would also
include delivery and return of crew members to
and from the ISS as well.
NASA will not specify the design of the launch
systems. The agency will just examine the proposed
system to insure that it is a reasonable design
and is compatible with the ISS operations.
pdf
document - Johnson Space Center contains
the Space Act agreements between NASA and
Rocketplane
Kistler (page 1) and between NASA and
SpaceX
(page 54). It includes the terms of the contracts
(e.g. intellectual property rights), summaries
of the proposals, and a list of the milestones
for each company and how much each will be
paid as it achieves each milestone.
Phase 1:
In May 2006 the number of companies
competing for the contract was reduced to
six, none of which included the large mainstream
aerospace firms. On August 18th, 2006, NASA announced
that it would award two contracts to Rocketplane-Kistler
and SpaceX.
They will receive $207M and $278M contigent upon
meeting a series of milestones and raising significant
funding from private sources.
SpaceX met its milestones but RpK failed to raise
sufficient outside capital and its agreement was
canceled in 2007.
Phase 1.5 - second round using $174M
that became available when Rocketplane Kistler's
contract was canceled.
Feb.19.08 - NASA announced that Orbital
Sciences had won the competition:
CRS - Commercial ISS Resupply Services
Contract
On Dec.23, 2008, NASA announced that SpaceX and
Orbital Sciences had won contracts to supply cargo
to the ISS. SpaceX will get a minimum of $1.6B
for 12 flights between 2010 and 2015. Orbital
will get $1.9B for 16 flights.
America's Space Prize - this $50M prize for
a privately developed orbital vehicle that could put
a crew of 5 in orbit by 2010 was offered by Bigelow
Aerospace in 2004. However, it was subsequently withdrawn
when no organization registered.
Suborbital Payload Challenge - demonstrate
"a reusable suborbital rocket to altitudes
or speeds of interest to science researchers.
Once demonstrated, such a capability could support
NASA and other research payloads."
Lunar Lander Analog
Challenge - "build a vertical take-off/vertical
landing suborbital vehicle capable of reaching
a speed consistent with the energies required
to land and launch from the moon. This prize is
intended to stimulate development of technologies
and capabilities for lunar and suborbital space
flight."
The purpose of RSVIPP is to spur competition
and entrepreneurial investment in designing a reusable
space vehicle. The competition will run from January
1, 2009 to January 1, 2014 and offer $40 million
to the company or individuals providing the most
significant advancement toward designing and building
a reusable space vehicle.
Draft
rules (pdf) require that the vehicle carry
seven people to an altitude of 185 km twice within
a two week period.
The V-Prize
The link - www.v-prize.com - has died. The site
described an effort to create a suborbital space
point-to-point competition. A $10M-$25M prize
will be given to first team to fly a vehicle from
Virginia's commercial spaceport to England in
less than hour.
The
Student Aerospace Challenge competition will
allow European students to participate in the design
of an suborbital spacecraft along the lines of the
air launched SpaceShipOne system:
X PRIZE
- 24 teams participated in the X PRIZE. The prize
was won by the Scaled
Composites SpaceShipOne. Many of the competitors
are expected to continue vehicle development and to
participate in the X PRIZE Cup.
A
Study of Air Launch Methods for RLVs (PDF 542kb)
presented at a recent AIAA conference by Marti Sarigul-Klijn
and Nesrin Sarigul-Klijn. of University of California,
Davis.States
that the various proposed air launched RLVs are not
feasible with current technology. They present their
own partially reusable SwiftLaunch design as a reasonable
short term alternative.
Andrews Space & Technology "Alchemist"
concept involves accumulating liquid oxygen during
an initial phase while flying at low altitude
and then using the LOX with a rocket engine for
a second phase boost to orbit.
Gryphon
Aerospaceplane - 2-stage RLV system in which
the first stage uses LOX collected from the atmospher
with the ACES
Pioneer
Rocketplane - orbital project moved to
RLV History. The company changed its name to Rocketplane
Ltd, see below,
and is pursuing a suborbital vehicle XP. Later it
bought Kistler and won a NASA COTS contract to build
the K-1.
A collaboration with the Canadian Arrow team
to build upon the Canadian
Arrow suborbital booster and the NASA Silver
Dart design to develop an orbital system. The
Silver Dart could also server as a suborbital
space tourist vehicle. The team competed for the
NASA COTS demonstration contract but failed to
obtain a contract. They intended to compete in
the second round.
On Sept. 28, 2006 it was announced that Jim
Benson would spinoff Benson
Space Company from SpaceDev to develop the
DreamChaser as a suborbital vehicle. See entry
in suborbital projects below. After that they
would develop an orbital version.
This is the putative name for the orbital version
of the SS1, SS2. No design info has been released
by Burt Rutan yet. Only general information saying
that if the SS2 is successful, it will be followed
by an orbital vehicle.
The first stage of the Falcon I is reusable.
Both stages of Falcon 9 are reusable. However,
it all cases, they must be recovered from sea
landings and refurbished. Not yet proven.
t/Space
- Transformational Space - collaboration of several
companies proposed a low cost orbital/lunar building
block approach for ISS crew/cargo resupply. Won $6M
in study contracts with NASA.
CXV - reusable capsule proposed
for the earth to LEO part of the CEV project. Rides
an air launched booster derived from the QuickReach
vehicle built by AirLaunch
LLC and developed under a DARPA Falcon project.
Suborbital
RLV Projects
These companies/projects focus on sub-orbital launchers
for commercial markets. Some of the teams participated
in the X
PRIZE, which was was won by the Scaled Composites
SpaceShipOne. We indicate here which of the projects
were also X-PRIZE participants.
This list includes some non-US projects. Other non-US
suborbital projects are listed in RLV
Part 2. SThe
Table compae some of the sub-orbital
vehicles in development. News and resources about some
of the suborbital companies can be found at Suborbital
Vehicle Companies - Commercial Space Wiki.
In 2006 this Rumanian organization switched
from their prioities from the Orizont
design to the balloon launched Stabilo,
which has an unusual design with the crew compartment
at the low end and the thruster nozzles at top.
Max G loads: 3.5GZ (head to toe) and 6GX
(front to back) Reclined passenger seats.
It will provide the option of landing in
a different place from where it takes off
(in hundreds of kilometers, i.e. it won't
deliver passengers from LA to Tokyo.)
Lynx
- XCOR announced on March 26, 2008 that they
would begin development of the Lynx Mark I vehicle,
which will take a pilot and a passenger to 61
km starting in 2010. Mark II version will go
to 110km.
New
rules allow for individual teams to arrange
for carrying out their flights at a time and place
of their choosing between July 1 - Oct.31, 2009.
Best performance that satisfies all requirements
will win. Purses available for second place Level
1 ($150k), and both first ($1000k) and second
place ($500k) Level 2.
2008:
10 teams initially registered but only Armadillo
and TrueZer0 brought vehicles to the event, which
was held at the Las Cruces, NM airport over Oct.24-25.
Armadillo won Level I with the Mod vehicle. They
attempted Level II with the Pixel vehicle but
a systematic problem with fuel valves caused a
nozzle failure. The TrueZer0 group's vehicle failed
shortly after reaching its hover altitude.
Interorbital's
Neptune RLV - Interorbital small startup company
whose "goal is to develop a low-cost commercial
manned space launch capability." The company
is currently developing "a low-cost sounding
rocket, the Tachyon, capable of reaching orbital altitude".
Solaris_X
- 2nd stage of the Neptune system that can operate
alone as a sub-orbital vehicle
Extending
Human Presence into the Solar System -
Planetary Society sponsored study Griffin
and others in which the basic outline of the
Ares 1 approach was laid out prior to Griffin's
appointment as NASA administrator.
Ares 5
Heavy lift vehicle, initially called the CaLV
(Cargo Lift Vehicle). 130 mT to LEO. Primary payload
is the LSAM (Lunar Surface Access Module) along
with the EDS (Earth Departure Stage) that powers
the trip to the Moon after the Orion capsule docks
with the LSAM.
NASA transferred the X-37 projec to the Air
Force in 2004. The Air Force decided in 2006 to
continue the X-37 spaceplane program and develop
the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) demonstrator
for a launch in 2008. The reusable vehicle will
be place in orbit by a Lockheed Martin Atlas 5
rocket. Boeing is the lead contractor.
Falcon
- long term program to develop a hypersonic launch
platform
Falcon
SLV - begins with development of a
low cost quick responce conventional launcher
a
Hybrid Launch Vehicle Study and Analysis
program - (formerly ARES Affordable
Responsive Spacelift) - program to develop a 2-stage
system with a reusable first stage. The goal is
to launch satellites in the 2300-6800 kg range
to LEO for one-third to one-sixth the price of
current launchers. The vehicle could launch with
just two days notice. Prototype by 2010. Operational
by 2018.
Space Based Reusable Vehicles
This section focuses on unmanned vehicles intended
for in space applications such as satellite
servicing, space station cargo delivery & pickup,
etc. In most projects, the goal is to develop vehicles
that either carry out multiple missions while in space
and/or can return to earth and be re-flown many times,
on different kinds of launch vehicles.
Space Operations Vehicle
(SOV) - Air Force research program since late
1990's to develop an unmanned reusable vehicle
to launch military payloads. It should have fast
response, e.g. 1 day preparation for launch.
The Rocket Company
Fictionalized
account of the challenges faced by a group of seven investors and their
engineering team in developing a low-cost, reusable, Earth-to-orbit launch
vehicle. Forward by Peter Diamandis
Amazon: USUK
