Reusable Launch Vehicle

Reusable Launch Vehicle PDF Author: Committee on Reusable Launch Vehicle Technology and Test Program
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309588960
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 99

Get Book Here

Book Description
The key to opening the use of space to private enterprise and to broader public uses lies in reducing the cost of the transportation to space. More routine, affordable access to space will entail aircraft-like quick turnaround and reliable operations. Currently, the space Shuttle is the only reusable launch vehicle, and even parts of it are expendable while other parts require frequent and extensive refurbishment. NASA's highest priority new activity, the Reusable Launch Vehicle program, is directed toward developing technologies to enable a new generation of space launchers, perhaps but not necessarily with single stage to orbit capability. This book assesses whether the technology development, test and analysis programs in propulsion and materials-related technologies are properly constituted to provide the information required to support a December 1996 decision to build the X-33, a technology demonstrator vehicle; and suggest, as appropriate, necessary changes in these programs to ensure that they will support vehicle feasibility goals.

Reusable Launch Vehicle

Reusable Launch Vehicle PDF Author: Committee on Reusable Launch Vehicle Technology and Test Program
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309588960
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 99

Get Book Here

Book Description
The key to opening the use of space to private enterprise and to broader public uses lies in reducing the cost of the transportation to space. More routine, affordable access to space will entail aircraft-like quick turnaround and reliable operations. Currently, the space Shuttle is the only reusable launch vehicle, and even parts of it are expendable while other parts require frequent and extensive refurbishment. NASA's highest priority new activity, the Reusable Launch Vehicle program, is directed toward developing technologies to enable a new generation of space launchers, perhaps but not necessarily with single stage to orbit capability. This book assesses whether the technology development, test and analysis programs in propulsion and materials-related technologies are properly constituted to provide the information required to support a December 1996 decision to build the X-33, a technology demonstrator vehicle; and suggest, as appropriate, necessary changes in these programs to ensure that they will support vehicle feasibility goals.

Reusable Booster System

Reusable Booster System PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309266564
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 115

Get Book Here

Book Description
On June 15, 2011, the Air Force Space Command established a new vision, mission, and set of goals to ensure continued U.S. dominance in space and cyberspace mission areas. Subsequently, and in coordination with the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Space and Missile Systems Center, and the 14th and 24th Air Forces, the Air Force Space Command identified four long-term science and technology (S&T) challenges critical to meeting these goals. One of these challenges is to provide full-spectrum launch capability at dramatically lower cost, and a reusable booster system (RBS) has been proposed as an approach to meet this challenge. The Air Force Space Command asked the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board of the National Research Council to conduct an independent review and assessment of the RBS concept prior to considering a continuation of RBS-related activities within the Air Force Research Laboratory portfolio and before initiating a more extensive RBS development program. The committee for the Reusable Booster System: Review and Assessment was formed in response to that request and charged with reviewing and assessing the criteria and assumptions used in the current RBS plans, the cost model methodologies used to fame [frame?] the RBS business case, and the technical maturity and development plans of key elements critical to RBS implementation. The committee consisted of experts not connected with current RBS activities who have significant expertise in launch vehicle design and operation, research and technology development and implementation, space system operations, and cost analysis. The committee solicited and received input on the Air Force launch requirements, the baseline RBS concept, cost models and assessment, and technology readiness. The committee also received input from industry associated with RBS concept, industry independent of the RBS concept, and propulsion system providers which is summarized in Reusable Booster System: Review and Assessment.

Space Transportation

Space Transportation PDF Author: United States. General Accounting Office
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Launch vehicles (Astronautics)
Languages : en
Pages : 46

Get Book Here

Book Description


Space transportation status of the X33 reusable launch vehicle program : report to congressional requesters

Space transportation status of the X33 reusable launch vehicle program : report to congressional requesters PDF Author:
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 1428974741
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 38

Get Book Here

Book Description


The X-33 Reusable Launch Vehicle

The X-33 Reusable Launch Vehicle PDF Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Science. Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 152

Get Book Here

Book Description


Space Transportation: Status of the X-33 Reusable Launch Vehicle Program

Space Transportation: Status of the X-33 Reusable Launch Vehicle Program PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 36

Get Book Here

Book Description
The purpose of the $ 1.3 billion X-33 Program, cosponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Lockheed Martin Corporation, is to develop and demonstrate advanced technologies and techniques needed for future reusable launch vehicles (RLV), including lightweight internal fuel tanks, advanced rocket engines, a durable heat shield, and rapid-turnaround, low-cost operations. The X-33 vehicle will be a half-scale model of Lockheed Martin's planned single-stage-to- orbit (SSTO) Venture Star RLV, an operational vehicle that will be based on and developed after the X-33. Lockheed Martin and NASA will base the decision to proceed with developing the Venture Star, in part, on the results of the X-33 Program. NASA would potentially be one of Lockheed Martin's primary customers for the cargo-only flights and, at this time, is the only anticipated customer for passenger flights. The passenger flights would carry crewmembers to and from the International Space Station.

Upgrading the Space Shuttle

Upgrading the Space Shuttle PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309063825
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 82

Get Book Here

Book Description
The space shuttle is a unique national resource. One of only two operating vehicles that carries humans into space, the space shuttle functions as a scientific laboratory and as a base for construction, repair, and salvage missions in low Earth orbit. It is also a heavy-lift launch vehicle (able to deliver more than 18,000 kg of payload to low Earth orbit) and the only current means of returning large payloads to Earth. Designed in the 1970s, the shuttle has frequently been upgraded to improve safety, cut operational costs, and add capability. Additional upgrades have been proposed-and some are under way-to combat obsolescence, further reduce operational costs, improve safety, and increase the ability of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to support the space station and other missions. In May 1998, NASA asked the National Research Council (NRC) to examine the agency's plans for further upgrades to the space shuttle system. The NRC was asked to assess NASA's method for evaluating and selecting upgrades and to conduct a top-level technical assessment of proposed upgrades.

Single Stage to Orbit

Single Stage to Orbit PDF Author: Andrew J. Butrica
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801873386
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 294

Get Book Here

Book Description
While the glories and tragedies of the space shuttle make headlines and move the nation, the story of the shuttle forms an inseparabe part of a lesser-known but no less important drama—the search for a reusable single-stage-to-orbit rocket. Here an award-winning student of space science, Andrew J. Butrica, examines the long and tangled history of this ambitious concept, from it first glimmerings in the 1920s, when technicians dismissed it as unfeasible, to its highly expensive heyday in the midst of the Cold War, when conservative-backed government programs struggled to produce an operational flight vehicle. Butrica finds a blending of far-sighted engineering and heavy-handed politics. To the first and oldest idea—that of the reusable rocket-powered single-stage-to-orbit vehicle—planners who belonged to what President Eisenhower referred to as the military-industrial complex.added experimental ("X"), "aircraft-like" capabilties and, eventually, a "faster, cheaper, smaller" managerial approach. Single Stage to Orbit traces the interplay of technology, corporate interest, and politics, a combination that well served the conservative space agenda and ultimately triumphed—not in the realization of inexpensive, reliable space transport—but in a vision of space militarization and commercialization that would appear settled United States policy in the early twenty-first century. -- D. M. Ashford

Dictionary of Space Technology

Dictionary of Space Technology PDF Author: Joseph Angelo
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135944091
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 574

Get Book Here

Book Description
Originally published in 1981, the completely revised and updated second edition of the Dictionary of Space Technology illustrates the advances of the last 20 years and makes accessible nearly every word, concept, and event relating to this branch of science. It guides lay persons and professionals alike through humankind's activities in space, the beginnings of our extraterrestrial society, and the increasingly important role of space sciences in everyday life. Defines more than 1,500 terms, including: science basics; historic events; defence and armed forces terminology; and planetary sciences. Enhanced by more than 175 photographs and drawings, this Dictionary covers the past, the present and the future of space, space flight, and space technology.

Hearing on the NASA Space Shuttle and the Reusable Launch Vehicle Programs

Hearing on the NASA Space Shuttle and the Reusable Launch Vehicle Programs PDF Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 64

Get Book Here

Book Description