Trends and Developments in Launch Systems

Abstract

The development of more reliable and lower cost launch capabilities has been the steady and consistent objective for a rocket scientist for many decades. Indeed, ever since the first rocket launcher capabilities were proven by Goddard, von Braun, and other early pioneers, the goal has been to create a better launch vehicle. For the past 50 years, however, the prime development work has largely been defined by developing improved chemically powered launch vehicles. The prime development efforts for solid missile systems have been driven by military programs, while liquid-fueled rockets were largely spear-headed by aerospace companies supplying launchers for civil aviation programs. During the past 2 decades, a growing capability to deliver reliable launch services has grown up in the world with Japan, China, India, and the Ukraine offering capabilities that rival the governmental programs of the USA, Europe, and Russia. The biggest change of all has been the advent of ``new space{''} entrepreneurial companies seeking to develop new lower cost and human-rated spaceplanes and highly competitive launch vehicles. These new commercial initiatives have served to alter the course of launch vehicle development in a variety of ways. New cost models and new commercial applications have driven thought in new ways. Areas of focus now include consideration of new ways to use electric ion propulsion, nuclear ion propulsion, and the development of hybrid systems that combine solid fuels with an oxidizer in such a way to allow hybrid propulsion systems to be turned on and off. Other new concepts include more efficient ways to launch from higher and more efficient altitudes by using balloons, carrier vehicles, or even towing launch systems to airborne launch sites. Another key area of research involves the ability of launch systems to be reused so that the rocket launcher can return to a launch site to be used over and over again. This is in addition to spaceplanes that can be used for multiple missions. At the research level, there are in fact over a dozen innovative ways that spacecraft and payloads could be placed into earth orbit. These range from concepts that have been actively researched by space agencies such as using nuclear heat to create ionic propulsion to exotic ideas for the future such as mass drivers, tether sky hooks, and even space elevators. And in addition to plans to make launchers more cost-efficient, reusable, and reliable, there are also new concerns about the environmental effects of rocket launchers on the fragile upper atmosphere where the density of molecules is perhaps a 100 times less than at sea level. This has given rise to particular concerns about solid fuel rockets that emit particulates and are perhaps 100 times more polluting than liquid-fuelled systems. New entrants such as Swiss Space Systems (S-3), Virgin Galactic, Sierra Nevada, SpaceX, and External Engines, Firefly, Blue Origin, Copenhagen Suborbital, Kelly Space & Technology, inc., Myasishchev Design Bureau, Interorbital Systems, Armadillo (now Exos Aerospace), Masten, Planespace, Scaled Composites, Rocketplane Kistler, Stratolaunch, XCOR, t/Space, Space Transport Company, Zero2Infinity, and Starchaser Industries have all contributed to a wealth of ideas about new, lower cost, safer, and more reliable ways to launch to orbit. Some of these start-ups have now failed and are defunct but their innovative concepts live on (J.N. Pelton, P. Marshall, Launching into Commercial Space. AIAA, Reston, 2015). In this era of rapid innovation and change, established aerospace companies such as Boeing, Orbital ATK, Northrop Grumman, Arianespace, Astrium-Air Bus, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, SeaLaunch, the United Launch Alliance, the Great Wall Company of China, and others are also seeking to innovate and create newer and better launch systems that keep current with the latest in launch technology and systems. In particular, they have been driven to find ways to cut cost in the face of new commercial space launch systems that their vehicles must compete (J.N. Pelton, P. Marshall, Launching into Commercial Space. AIAA, Reston, 2015). This chapter provides the latest updates on new launch systems and ends with a brief update about the impact of new commercial spaceports and launch sites.