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This article gives a concise timeline of rocket and missile technology.
A reusable launch system is a launch system that allows for the reuse of some or all of the component stages. To date, several fully reusable suborbital systems and partially reusable orbital systems have been flown.
A booster rocket is either the first stage of a multistage launch vehicle, or else a shorter-burning rocket used in parallel with longer-burning sustainer rockets to augment the space vehicle's takeoff thrust and payload capability. Boosters are traditionally necessary to launch spacecraft into low Earth orbit, and are especially important for a space vehicle to go beyond Earth orbit. The booster is dropped to fall back to Earth once its fuel is expended, a point known as booster engine cut-off (BECO).
A spaceplane is a vehicle that can fly and glide like an aircraft in Earth's atmosphere and maneuver like a spacecraft in outer space. To do so, spaceplanes must incorporate features of both aircraft and spacecraft. Orbital spaceplanes tend to be more similar to conventional spacecraft, while sub-orbital spaceplanes tend to be more similar to fixed-wing aircraft. All spaceplanes to date have been rocket-powered but then landed as unpowered gliders.
Vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) is a form of takeoff and landing for rockets. Multiple VTVL craft have flown. The most widely known and commercially successful VTVL rocket is SpaceX's Falcon 9 first stage.
Falcon Heavy is a partially reusable heavy-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured by SpaceX. It is derived from the Falcon 9 vehicle and consists of a strengthened Falcon 9 first stage as the center core with two additional Falcon 9-like first stages as strap-on boosters. Falcon Heavy has the highest payload capacity of any currently operational launch vehicle, and the third-highest capacity of any rocket ever to reach orbit, trailing the Saturn V and Energia.
SpaceX manufactures launch vehicles to operate its launch provider services and to execute its various exploration goals. SpaceX currently manufactures and operates the Falcon 9 Full Thrust family of medium-lift launch vehicles and the Falcon Heavy family of heavy-lift launch vehicles – both of which powered by SpaceX Merlin engines and employing VTVL technologies to reuse the first stage. As of 2020, the company is also developing the fully reusable Starship launch system, which will replace the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy.
The SpaceX reusable launch system development program is a privately funded program to develop a set of new technologies for an orbital launch system that may be reused many times in a manner similar to the reusability of aircraft. SpaceX has been developing the technologies over several years to facilitate full and rapid reusability of space launch vehicles. The project's long-term objectives include returning a launch vehicle first stage to the launch site in minutes and to return a second stage to the launch pad following orbital realignment with the launch site and atmospheric reentry in up to 24 hours. SpaceX's long term goal is that both stages of their orbital launch vehicle will be designed to allow reuse a few hours after return.
The Falcon 9 first-stage landing tests were a series of controlled-descent flight tests conducted by SpaceX between 2013 and 2016. Since 2017, the first stage of Falcon 9 missions has been routinely landed if the rocket performance allowed it, and if SpaceX chose to recover the stage.
Electron is a two-stage, partially recoverable orbital launch vehicle developed by Rocket Lab, an American aerospace company founded in New Zealand with a wholly owned New Zealand subsidiary. Electron was developed to service the commercial small satellite launch market. Its Rutherford engines are the first electric-pump-fed engine to power an orbital-class rocket. Electron is often flown with a kickstage or Rocket Lab's Photon spacecraft. Although the rocket is designed to be expendable, Rocket Lab has recovered the first stage twice and is working towards the capability of reusing the booster.
Falcon 9 flight 20 was a Falcon 9 space launch that occurred on 22 December 2015 at 01:29:00 UTC. It was the first time that the first stage of an orbital rocket made a successful return and vertical landing.
Adeline is a concept for a reusable rocket first-stage that would fly itself back to Earth after a launch using drone technology for horizontal landing on a runway. Airbus Defence and Space conceived the design concept.
Liquid Fly-back Booster (LFBB) was a German Aerospace Center's (DLR's) project concept to develop a liquid rocket booster capable of reusing for Ariane 5 in order to significantly reduce the high cost of space transportation and increase environmental friendliness. LFBB would replace the existing solid rocket boosters, providing main thrust during the liftoff. Once separated, two winged boosters would perform an atmospheric entry, fly back autonomously to the French Guiana, and land horizontally on the airport like an aeroplane.
Orbital Express Launch Ltd., or Orbex, is a UK-based aerospace company that is developing a small commercial orbital rocket called Prime. Orbex is headquartered in Forres, Moray, in Scotland and has subsidiaries in Denmark and Germany. Its future launch complex is proposed to be built on the A' Mhòine peninsula in the county of Sutherland, northern Scotland.
The Starship system is a fully reusable, two‑stage‑to‑orbit super heavy‑lift launch vehicle under development by SpaceX. The system is composed of a booster stage named Super Heavy and a second stage, also called "Starship". Unusual for a traditional launch vehicle second stage, the Starship second stage is being designed to be a long‑duration cargo and passenger‑carrying spacecraft and lander.
Falcon 9 Block 5 is a partially reusable two-stage-to-orbit medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX. It is the fifth version of Falcon 9 Full Thrust, powered by SpaceX Merlin engines burning liquid oxygen (LOX) and rocket-grade kerosene (RP-1) propellants.
The German space programme is the set of projects funded by the government of Germany for the exploration and utilisation of outer space. The space programme is run by the German Aerospace Center, who conduct research, plan, and implement the programme on behalf of the German federal government.
A floating launch vehicle operations platform is a marine vessel used for launch or landing operations of an orbital launch vehicle by a launch service provider: putting satellites into orbit around Earth or another celestial body, or recovering first-stage boosters from orbital-class flights by making a propulsive landing on the platform.
References
- ↑ "RETALT". RETALT. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
- ↑ Berger, Eric (26 June 2019). "Europe says SpaceX "dominating" launch, vows to develop Falcon 9-like rocket". Ars Technica. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
- ↑ https://www.futura-sciences.com/sciences/actualites/lanceur-reutilisable-dlr-veut-lanceurs-reutilisables-plus-performants-falcon-9-76593/
- ↑ "RETALT". RETALT. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
- ↑ Andrew Parsonson (26 June 2019). "European Consortium Brazenly Announces Plans to Copy Falcon 9". rocketrundown.com. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
- ↑ "European reusable launch systems for more sustainability in spaceflight". Space Daily.
- ↑ DLR. "RETALT project European reusable launch systems for more sustainability in spaceflight". DLR Portal. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
- ↑ http://www.elecnor-deimos.com/portfolio/retalt/
- ↑ "European projects". CFS Engineering. 2018-12-10. Retrieved 2020-02-13.
- ↑ "Almatech is part of the European project for the development of a Reusable Landing Rocket (RETALT)". Almatech. 2019-06-24. Retrieved 2020-02-13.
- ↑ Portugal, Fullsix. "Cork integrated within programme for reusable space vehicles". Amorim Cork Composites. Retrieved 2020-02-13.
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