New Shepard details
* There is no picture but the first page cover graphic shows a DC-X type of vehicle and the description seems pretty close to that design as well except that the New Shepard has a separate propulsion module (PM) and a crew capsule (CC).
* The "stacked vehicle would have a roughly conical shape with a base diameter of approximately 7 meters (22 feet) and a height of approximately 15 meters (50 feet)."
* The CC will hold at least 3 space flight participants
* The PM:
... "will use 90 percent concentration hydrogen peroxide, called high test peroxide (HTP), and rocket propellant (RP) grade kerosene"
... at liftoff the system wlll have 54,431 kilograms-mass (120,000 pounds-mass).
... will have "thrust capability of approximately 1,023,091 Newtons (230,000 pounds-force) at liftoff".
... "will be fully reusable, would carry its own avionics, and would operate autonomously under the control of on-board computers.
... will use a "Reaction Control System (RCS) using either monopropellant HTP or pressurized gas, such as helium or nitrogen, also known as a cold-gas system". * The CC:
... will also be fully reusable and operate autonomously
... will "carry small solid rocket motors for use in an emergency abort situation."
... will have moters "composed aof an luminum hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene composite propellant"
* Besides an abort situation, the document talks of two flight scenarios:
... (1) the PM and CC remain attached during a vertical launch and the vehicle coasts to over 100km altitude after 2 minutes of PM engine thrust. On descent the vehicle will "restart its engines several thousand feet above the ground for a precision vertical powered landing on the landing pad." Total flight time of 10 minutes
...(2) Similar trajectory as in (1) "except that shortly after main engine cutoff, the propulsion module and CC would separate". The PM would use a powered landing as in (1) but the CC would return using parachutes.
* A series of unmanned protoypes is planned:
... The first of these will "be a low-altitude demonstrator of the propulsion module using approximately 2,042 kilograms (4,500 pounds) of HTP as a monopropellant, capable of reaching an altitude of no more than 610 meters (2,000 feet) with a mission time of less than one minute".
... "Each new prototype would fly to higher altitudes and/or demonstrate additional subsystems than the previous prototype."
* Schedule:
... 2006 - the West Texas site will be finished and about 10 flights of the initial prototype will be carried out.
... 2007-2009 - prototype flights of the series of prototypes. They expect about 25 flights per year.
... 2010 - commercial operations start. "The flight rate would depend on market demand, but Blue Origin anticipates rates up to approximately 52 launches per year of the New Shepard RLV."
See the document (Chapter 2) for lots more info, especially about the launch site.
Posted 06/23/06 | 19:41:35 by TopSpacer | Filed under: Transport Companies


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