In an effort to reduce the cost of access and open up new markets, the European Space Agency has begun a program called Future European Space Transportation Investigations Programme or FESTIP, in which reusable launcher concepts are being studied and developed. The ideal reusable launcher would be comparable to a normal aircraft in that it would be capable of taking off from many possible locations on Earth, enter the desired orbital plane, then accelerate to orbital velocity, release its payload, de-orbit, disperse its kinetic energy and land at the take-off base to be prepared for its next flight following a quick turnaround time. This ideal vehicle would be called the ‘single-stage-to-orbit reusable rocket launcher’ or SSTO-RRL. All space launchers currently in use are staged to orbit and expendable, except the US Space Shuttle, and there is no SSTO-RRL in operation as yet. This paper will discuss the design options being studied by the European Space Agency (ESA) as well as their practical use in serving the space-launch market (FESTIP Workshop 1).
The European Space Agency’s FESTIP initiative
Space technology and applications international forum - 1998 ; 1998 ; Albuquerque,New Mexico (USA)
AIP Conference Proceedings ; 420 , 1 ; 921-925
1998-01-15
5 pages
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English
The European Space Agency's FESTIP Initiative
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