The Aerospace Corporation was tasked by the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center to provide technical support to the Federal Aviation Administration, Office of Commercial Space Transportation (FAA/AST), in assessing the risks involved with triggered lightning during suborbital launches and reentries of reusable launch vehicles (RLVs) from the proposed Southwest Regional Spaceport in New Mexico and the proposed Oklahoma Spaceport, Burns Flat, Oklahoma. The Aerospace Corporation is pleased to submit this final report, in accordance with the requirements delineated in Section F, Deliveries or Performance, of Volpe Center Contract No. DTRS57-99-D-00062. Risk of triggered lightning was studied for five conceptual RLVs originating and/or landing at these proposed spaceports. Three areas were addressed: (1) observed frequencies of cloud-to-ground lightning at the proposed spaceports, including estimates of violation frequencies of the existing lightning launch commit criteria (LLCC), (2) estimates of the ambient fields required for triggering by each of the concept vehicles, including consideration of potential methods for estimating the probability of encountering these field magnitudes from the measured radar returns of thunderstorm anvil clouds, and (3) review of the current LLCC to determine if the criteria are relevant to each suborbital RLV concept, including an evaluation of local geographical effects pertaining to each spaceport to determine whether additional LLCC are necessary to conduct safe launch operations there.


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    Title :

    Triggered Lightning Risk Assessment for Reusable Launch Vehicles at the Southwest Regional and Oklahoma Spaceports


    Contributors:
    E. P. Krider (author) / J. C. Willett (author) / G. S. Peng (author) / F. S. Simmons (author) / G. W. Law (author)

    Publication date :

    2006


    Size :

    167 pages


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English