[FPSPACE] reflecting on the transition between ELVs & RLVs

[Keith Gottschalk]

     The topic of RLVs always starts with deep skepticism & cynicism, due to five decades of broken promises & cancelled programmes. As with the Roger Launius paper that I referred to in an earlier posting. Judging by the other papers at relevant International Astronautical Congress sessions, here are a few reflections on what is going on right now.
 
1. It seems that between ELVs & RLVs, we might be entering a transitional era of PLVs - partially reusable vehicles.  Continuing with coining more new acronyms, it seems these PLVs can be divided into two variants:
 
2. We seem to be going to have what may be called RRVs - reusable reentry vehicles.  These typically take the form of a TSTO  VTHOL.  The STS is the most venerable of these.  X-37B is proudly making its second flight as a distant descendant of the cancelled X-20 Dyna-Soar. The wingless Dragon, CST, & Orion, are all an advance on Mercury, Gemini & Apollo in more than size, in that the former three are all designed & built to be reusable. ISRO's proposed TSTO winged RLV is also more accurately called a RRV.
 
3.  Another PLV variant is the fly-back booster - FBB. The STS's salvageable SRBs are a venerable halfway house to this, which has not yet been achieved. SpaceX has announced their intention to add landing legs to their Falcon 9. We all look forward to seeing if they get further than the Douglas Clipper & Kistler....
 
    The combined result of the above engineering approaches could be significant reduction in cost per kg. to LEO, even if not a reduction in costs per flight of one magnitude. We will also see advances in TPS materials manufacturing, compared to the STS TPS, which dates from 1970s technology.
 
- Keith
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