593. The Potential of a State-Of-The-Art Recoverable Launch Vehicle
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Paper
Abstract
In recent years there has been increased interest in the possible use of reusable launch vehicles. The economics of using a launch vehicle over and over certainly makes it a very attractive idea. At present, literally tons of exceedingly expensive hardware is abandoned in space or allowed to burn up upon re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere. One possible way of avoiding this extremely wasteful procedure is to provide a launch vehicle with a crew and flyback capability.
This paper describes a launch vehicle with this capability that has been developed at a conceptual level using state-of-the-art designs and materials. It is a vertical takeoff concept with flyback and horizontal landing capability. Basically, it represents the fusion of both rocket and airplane design considerations. This unusual configuration has some very interesting and unique problems associated with its design and mass properties control.
