Tweet
NASA looking to t/Space (Transformational Space Corporation) for the solution to a shuttle replacement program? Could be.
The plan looks to be a combination of two vehicles: the t/Space CXV (Crew Transfer Vehicle) launch vehicle for getting men to orbit and the CEV (Crew Exploration Vehicle) for lunar and other missions.
Space.Com article:
TransformSpace home:
Images:
QuickReach article:
Dr. Mordrid
The plan looks to be a combination of two vehicles: the t/Space CXV (Crew Transfer Vehicle) launch vehicle for getting men to orbit and the CEV (Crew Exploration Vehicle) for lunar and other missions.
Space.Com article:
TransformSpace home:
Images:
The structure of the CXV capsule would be designed and built by Rutan's Scaled Composites, the Mojave, Calif.-based company that designed and built SpaceShipOne, the world's first private-financed piloted spacecraft, for roughly $25 million.
The CXV would be attached to its booster and carried aloft under the belly of a large carrier aircraft to an altitude of 7,600 meters for release and launch - an approach t/Space thinks has significant safety advantages over a pad launch in the event of a booster failure.
"You are up high enough where you can separate and parachute down under almost any circumstance," Gump said. "Whereas with an abort on the pad you have a split second to release a lot of energy, hopefully in the right direction, to get you up high enough for the chutes to deploy. It's much more challenging."
The CXV would be designed to make a parachute landing into the water and be recovered for reuse, according to Gump, "with minimal refurbishment."
The CXV booster would be a more powerful version of the QuickReach booster that t/Space teammate AirLaunch LLC is developing for the U.S. Air Force and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's under its operationally responsive spacelift program.
The CXV would be attached to its booster and carried aloft under the belly of a large carrier aircraft to an altitude of 7,600 meters for release and launch - an approach t/Space thinks has significant safety advantages over a pad launch in the event of a booster failure.
"You are up high enough where you can separate and parachute down under almost any circumstance," Gump said. "Whereas with an abort on the pad you have a split second to release a lot of energy, hopefully in the right direction, to get you up high enough for the chutes to deploy. It's much more challenging."
The CXV would be designed to make a parachute landing into the water and be recovered for reuse, according to Gump, "with minimal refurbishment."
The CXV booster would be a more powerful version of the QuickReach booster that t/Space teammate AirLaunch LLC is developing for the U.S. Air Force and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's under its operationally responsive spacelift program.
The QuickReach is a two-stage liquid fuel rocket that is carried to its launch point in the cargo bay of an aircraft such as an Air Force C-17 or a privately chartered Antonov 124. This simplifies operations compared to ground launch from a fixed range in several ways: no coordination is required with other users of the range, weather constraints are avoided by flying to open sky, and there are fewer delays waiting for specific launch windows (to match desired orbits) because the vehicle can be flown to an alternate launch point that is better aligned with the desired orbit.
Because QuickReach does not use turbopumps or mechanical gas pressurization systems, it can be scaled up with few changes in its basic components. This means that later versions of QuickReach can deliver 10,000-lb. payloads simply through modest increases in the diameter of the vehicle and its engines.
Comment