A return vehicle is disclosed for use in returning a crew to Earth from low earth orbit in a safe and relatively cost effective manner. The return vehicle comprises a cylindrically-shaped crew compartment attached to the large diameter of a conical heat sheild having a spherically rounded nose. On-board inertial navigation and cold gas control systems are used together with a de-orbit propulsion system to effect a landing near a preferred site on the surface of the Earth. State vectors and attitude data are loaded from the attached orbiting craft just prior to separation of the return vehicle.
Assured Crew Return Vehicle
1989
87 pages
Report
No indication
English
Manned Spacecraft , Space Launch Vehicles & Support Equipment , Government Inventions for Licensing , Patent applications , Cost effectiveness , Earth orbits , Escape systems , Inertial navigation , Landing sites , Return to earth space flight , State vectors , Guidance (Motion) , Propulsion , Spacecraft cabins
NTRS | 1991
|NTRS | 1991
|Assured Crew Return Capability Architecture
NTIS | 1989
|