Vehicles that can go to space and return
A
reusable launch vehicle
has parts that can be recovered and reflown, while carrying
payloads
from the surface to
outer space
.
Rocket stages
are the most common
launch vehicle
parts aimed for reuse. Smaller parts such as
rocket engines
and
boosters
can also be reused, though
reusable spacecraft
may be launched on top of an expendable launch vehicle. Reusable launch vehicles do not need to make these parts for each launch, therefore reducing its
launch cost
significantly. However, these benefits are diminished by the cost of recovery and refurbishment.
Reusable launch vehicles may contain additional
avionics
and
propellant
, making them heavier than their expendable counterparts. Reused parts may need to
enter the atmosphere
and navigate through it, so they are often equipped with
heat shields
,
grid fins
, and other
flight control surfaces
. By modifying their shape,
spaceplanes
can leverage
aviation
mechanics to aid in its recovery, such as
gliding
or
lift
. In the atmosphere,
parachutes
or
retrorockets
may also be needed to slow it down further. Reusable parts may also need specialized recovery facilities such as
runways
or
autonomous spaceport drone ships
. Some concepts rely on ground infrastructures such as
mass drivers
to accelerate the launch vehicle beforehand.
Since at least in the early 20th century,
single-stage-to-orbit
reusable launch vehicles have existed in
science fiction
. In the 1960s and 1970s, the first reusable launch vehicles were manufactured, named the
Space Shuttle
and
Energia
. However, in the 1990s, due to both programs' failure to meet expectations, reusable launch vehicle concepts were reduced to prototype testing. The rise of
private spaceflight
companies in the 2000s and 2010s lead to a resurgence of their development, such as in
SpaceShipOne
,
New Shepard
,
Electron
,
Falcon 9
, and
Falcon Heavy
. Many launch vehicles are now expected to debut with reusability in the 2020s, such as
Starship
,
New Glenn
,
Neutron
,
Soyuz-7
,
Ariane Next
,
Long March
,
Terran R
, and the Dawn Mk-II Aurora.
[1]
Configurations
[
edit
]
Reusable launch systems may be either fully or partially reusable.
Fully reusable launch vehicle
[
edit
]
Several companies are currently developing fully reusable launch vehicles as of March 2024. Each of them is working on a
two-stage-to-orbit
system.
SpaceX
is testing
Starship
, which has been in development since 2016 and has made
an initial test flight
in April 2023
[2]
and two more flights as of March 2024.
Blue Origin
, with
Project Jarvis
, began development work by early 2021, but has announced no date for testing and have not discussed the project publicly.
[3]
Stoke Space
is also developing a rocket which is planned to be reusable.
[4]
[5]
As of March 2024
[update]
, Starship is the only
launch vehicle
intended to be fully reusable that has been fully built and tested. The most recent test flight was on March 14, 2024,
[6]
in which the vehicle completed a suborbital launch but failed to recover either stage. The
Super Heavy
booster broke up attempting to touch down softly in the
Gulf of Mexico
. After booster separation, the upper stage lit all 6 of its
Raptor engines
and became the first Starship test flight to complete a full ascent burn. During coast the ship experienced multiple problems, one of which induced a roll, which would cause the
heat shield
to be facing the wrong direction, which would burn the vehicle during
reentry
, and communications were lost at 49 minutes after launch.
Earlier plans to run tests of enhanced reusability on the second stage of the SpaceX
Falcon 9
were set aside in 2018.
Partially reusable launch systems
[
edit
]
Partial reusable launch systems, in the form of multiple stage to orbit systems have been so far the only reusable configurations in use.
Specific component reuse
[
edit
]
The historic
Space Shuttle
reused its
Solid Rocket Boosters
, its
RS-25
engines and the
Space Shuttle orbiter
that acted as an orbital insertion stage, but it did not reuse the
External Tank
that fed the RS-25 engines. This is an example of a reusable launch system which reuses specific components of rockets.
ULA’s
Vulcan Centaur
will specifically reuse the first stage engines, while the tank is expended. The engines will splashdown on an inflatable
aeroshell
, then be recovered. On 23 February 2024, one of the nine Merlin engines a powering a
Falcon 9
booster reached orbit for the 22nd time. It is already the most renowned rocket engine to date, surpassing
Space Shuttle Main Engine
no. 2019's record of 19 flights on its 20th flight.
Liftoff stages
[
edit
]
As of 2024,
Falcon 9
and
Falcon Heavy
are the only orbital rockets to reuse their boosters, although multiple other systems are in development. All aircraft-launched rockets reuse the aircraft.
Other than that a range of
non-rocket liftoff systems
have been proposed and explored over time as reusable systems for liftoff, from balloons
[7]
[
relevant?
]
to
space elevators
. Existing examples are systems which employ winged horizontal jet-engine powered liftoff. Such aircraft can
air launch
expendable rockets and can because of that be considered partially reusable systems if the aircraft is thought of as the first stage of the launch vehicle. An example of this configuration is the
Orbital Sciences Pegasus
. For suborbital flight the
SpaceShipTwo
uses for liftoff a carrier plane, its
mothership
the
Scaled Composites White Knight Two
. Rocket Lab is working on
Neutron
, and the
European Space Agency
is working on
Themis
. Both vehicles are planned to recover the first stage.
[8]
[9]
Orbital insertion stages
[
edit
]
So far, most launch systems achieve
orbital insertion
with at least partially expended
multistaged rockets
, particularly with the second and third stages. Only the
Space Shuttle
has achieved a reuse of the orbital insertion stage, by using the engines and fuel tank of
its orbiter
. The
Buran spaceplane
and
Starship spacecraft
are two other reusable spacecraft that were designed to be able to act as orbital insertion stages and have been produced, however the former only made one uncrewed test flight before the project was cancelled, and the latter is not yet operational, having completed
three orbital test flights
, as of March 2024, which achieved most of its mission objectives at the third flight.
Reusable spacecraft
[
edit
]
Launch systems can be combined with reusable spaceplanes or capsules. The
Space Shuttle orbiter
,
SpaceShipTwo
, Dawn Mk-II Aurora, and the under-development Indian
RLV-TD
are examples for a reusable space vehicle (a
spaceplane
) as well as a part of its launch system.
More contemporarily the
Falcon 9
launch system has carried reusable vehicles such as the
Dragon 2
and
X-37
, transporting two reusable vehicles at the same time.
Contemporary reusable orbital vehicles include the X-37, the
Dream Chaser
, the Dragon 2, the Indian RLV-TD and the upcoming European
Space Rider
(successor to the
IXV
).
As with launch vehicles, all pure spacecraft during the early decades of human capacity to achieve spaceflight were designed to be single-use items. This was true both for
satellites
and
space probes
intended to be left in space for a long time, as well as any object designed to return to Earth such as
human-carrying
space capsules
or the sample return canisters of space matter collection missions like
Stardust
(1999?2006)
[10]
or
Hayabusa
(2005?2010).
[11]
[12]
Exceptions to the general rule for space vehicles were the US
Gemini SC-2
, the
Soviet Union
spacecraft
Vozvraschaemyi Apparat (VA)
, the US
Space Shuttle orbiter
(mid-1970s-2011, with 135 flights between 1981 and 2011) and the Soviet
Buran
(1980-1988, with just one uncrewed test flight in 1988). Both of these spaceships were also an integral part of the launch system (providing launch acceleration) as well as operating as medium-duration spaceships in
space
. This began to change in the mid-2010s.
In the 2010s, the
space transport cargo capsule
from one of the suppliers resupplying the
International Space Station
was designed for reuse, and after 2017,
[13]
NASA began to allow the reuse of the SpaceX
Dragon cargo spacecraft
on these NASA-contracted transport routes. This was the beginning of design and operation of a
reusable space vehicle
.
The
Boeing Starliner
capsules also reduce their fall speed with parachutes and deploy an airbag shortly before touchdown on the ground, in order to retrieve and reuse the vehicle.
As of 2021
[update]
, SpaceX is currently building and testing the
Starship
spaceship to be capable of surviving multiple
hypersonic
reentries through the atmosphere
so that they become truly reusable long-duration spaceships; no Starship operational flights have yet occurred.
Entry systems
[
edit
]
Heat shield
[
edit
]
With possible inflatable
heat shields
, as developed by the US (Low Earth Orbit Flight Test Inflatable Decelerator - LOFTID)
[14]
and China,
[15]
single-use rockets like the
Space Launch System
are considered to be retrofitted with such heat shields to salvage the expensive engines, possibly reducing the costs of launches significantly.
[16]
Heat shields allow an orbiting spacecraft to land safely without expending very much fuel. They need not take the form of inflatable heat shields, they may simply take the form of heat resistant tiles that prevent
heat conduction
. Heat shields are also proposed for use in combination with retrograde thrust to allow for full reusability as seen in
Starship
.
Retrograde thrust
[
edit
]
Reusable launch system stages such as the
Falcon 9
and the
New Shepard
employ retrograde burns for re-entry, and landing.
[
citation needed
]
Landing systems
[
edit
]
Reusable systems can come in
single
or multiple
(
two
or
three
) stages to orbit configurations. For some or all stages the following landing system types can be employed.
Types
[
edit
]
Parachutes and airbags
[
edit
]
These are landing systems that employ parachutes and bolstered hard landings, like in a
splashdown
at sea or a touchdown at land. The latter may require an engine burn just before landing as parachutes alone cannot slow the craft down enough to prevent injury to astronauts. This can be seen in the Soyuz capsule.
Though such systems have been in use since the beginning of
astronautics
to recover space vehicles, only later have the vehicles been reused.
E.g.:
Horizontal (winged)
[
edit
]
Single or main stages, as well as
fly-back boosters
can employ a horizontal landing system. These vehicles land on earth much like a plane does, but they usually do not use propellant during landing.
Examples are:
A variant is an in-air-capture tow back system, advocated by a company called EMBENTION with its FALCon project.
[17]
Vehicles that land horizontally on a runway require wings and undercarriage. These typically consume about 9-12% of the landing vehicle mass,
[
citation needed
]
which either reduces the payload or increases the size of the vehicle. Concepts such as
lifting bodies
offer some reduction in wing mass,
[
citation needed
]
as does the
delta wing
shape of the
Space Shuttle
.
Vertical (retrograde)
[
edit
]
Systems like the
McDonnell Douglas DC-X (Delta Clipper)
and those by
SpaceX
are examples of a retrograde system.
The boosters of
Falcon 9
and
Falcon Heavy
land using one of their nine engines. The
Falcon 9
rocket is the first orbital rocket to vertically land its first stage on the ground. The first stage of
Starship
is planned to land vertically, while the second is to be caught by arms after performing most of the typical steps of a retrograde landing.
Blue Origin
's
New Shepard
suborbital rocket also lands vertically back at the launch site.
Retrograde landing typically requires about 10% of the total first stage propellant, reducing the payload that can be carried due to the
rocket equation
.
[18]
Landing using aerostatic force
[
edit
]
There is also the concept of a launch vehicle with an inflatable, reusable first stage. The shape of this structure will be supported by excess internal pressure (using light gases). It is assumed that the bulk density of the first stage (without propellant) is less than the bulk density of air. Upon returning from flight, such a first stage remains floating in the air (without touching the surface of the Earth). This will ensure that the first stage is retained for reuse. Increasing the size of the first stage increases aerodynamic losses. This results in a slight decrease in payload. This reduction in payload is compensated for by the reuse of the first stage.
[19]
Constraints
[
edit
]
Reusable stages weigh more than equivalent
expendable stages
. This is unavoidable due to the supplementary systems, landing gear and/or surplus propellant needed to land a stage. The actual mass penalty depends on the vehicle and the return mode chosen.
[20]
Refurbishment
[
edit
]
After the launcher lands, it may need to be refurbished to prepare it for its next flight. This process may be lengthy and expensive. The launcher may not be able to be recertified as human-rated after refurbishment, although SpaceX has flown reused Falcon 9 boosters for human missions. There is eventually a limit on how many times a launcher can be refurbished before it has to be retired, but how often a launcher can be reused differs significantly between the various launch system designs.
History
[
edit
]
With the development of
rocket propulsion
in the first half of the twentieth century,
space travel
became a technical possibility.
Early ideas of a single-stage reusable
spaceplane
proved unrealistic and although even the first practical rocket vehicles (
V-2
) could reach the fringes of space, reusable technology was too heavy. In addition many early rockets were developed to deliver weapons, making reuse impossible by design. The problem of mass efficiency was overcome by using multiple expendable stages in a vertical-launch
multistage rocket
. USAF and NACA had been studying orbital reusable spaceplanes since 1958, e.g.
Dyna-Soar
, but the first reusable stages did not fly until the advent of the US
Space Shuttle
in 1981.
20th century
[
edit
]
Perhaps the first reusable launch vehicles were the ones conceptualized and studied by
Wernher von Braun
from 1948 until 1956. The
Von Braun Ferry Rocket
underwent two revisions: once in 1952 and again in 1956. They would have landed using parachutes.
[21]
[22]
The
General Dynamics Nexus
was proposed in the 1960s as a fully reusable successor to the Saturn V rocket, having the capacity of transporting up to 450?910 t (990,000?2,000,000 lb) to orbit.
[23]
[24]
See also
Sea Dragon
, and
Douglas SASSTO
.
The
BAC Mustard
was studied starting in 1964. It would have comprised three identical spaceplanes strapped together and arranged in two stages. During ascent the two outer spaceplanes, which formed the first stage, would detach and glide back individually to earth. It was canceled after the last study of the design in 1967 due to a lack of funds for development.
[25]
NASA started the
Space Shuttle design process
in 1968, with the vision of creating a fully reusable
spaceplane
using a crewed
fly-back booster
. This concept proved expensive and complex, therefore the design was scaled back to reusable
solid rocket
boosters and an expendable
external tank
.
[26]
[27]
Space Shuttle
Columbia
launched and landed 27 times and was lost with all crew on the 28th landing attempt;
Challenger
launched and landed 9 times and was lost with all crew on the 10th launch attempt;
Discovery
launched and landed 39 times;
Atlantis
launched and landed 33 times.
In 1986 President
Ronald Reagan
called for an air-breathing
scramjet
National Aerospace Plane
(NASP)/
X-30
. The project failed due to technical issues and was canceled in 1993.
[28]
In the late 1980s a fully reusable version of the
Energia
rocket, the Energia II, was proposed. Its boosters and core would have had the capability of landing separately on a runway.
[29]
In the 1990s the
McDonnell Douglas
Delta Clipper
VTOL SSTO proposal progressed to the testing phase. The
DC-X
prototype demonstrated rapid turnaround time and automatic computer control.
In mid-1990s, British research evolved an earlier
HOTOL
design into the far more promising
Skylon
design, which remains in development.
From the late 1990s to the 2000s, the
European Space Agency
studied the recovery of the
Ariane 5
solid rocket
boosters.
[30]
The last recovery attempt took place in 2009.
[31]
The commercial ventures,
Rocketplane Kistler
and
Rotary Rocket
, attempted to build reusable privately developed rockets before going bankrupt.
[
citation needed
]
NASA proposed reusable concepts to replace the Shuttle technology, to be demonstrated under the
X-33
and
X-34
programs, which were both cancelled in the early 2000s due to rising costs and technical issues.
21st century
[
edit
]
The
Ansari X Prize
contest was intended to develop private suborbital reusable vehicles. Many private companies competed, with the winner,
Scaled Composites
, reaching the
Karman line
twice in a two-week period with their reusable
SpaceShipOne
.
In 2012,
SpaceX
started a flight test program with
experimental vehicles
. These subsequently led to the development of the
Falcon 9
reusable rocket launcher.
[32]
On 23 November 2015 the
New Shepard
rocket became the first
Vertical Take-off, Vertical Landing
(VTVL) sub-orbital rocket to reach space by passing the
Karman line
(100 km or 62 mi), reaching 329,839 ft (100,535 m) before returning for a propulsive landing.
[33]
[34]
SpaceX achieved the first vertical soft landing of a reusable orbital rocket stage on December 21, 2015, after delivering 11
Orbcomm OG-2
commercial satellites into
low Earth orbit
.
[35]
The first reuse of a Falcon 9 first stage occurred on 30 March 2017.
[36]
SpaceX now routinely recovers and reuses
their first stages, as well as reusing fairings
.
[37]
In 2019
Rocket Lab
announced plans to recover and reuse the first stage of their
Electron
launch vehicle, intending to use
parachutes
and
mid-air retrieval
.
[38]
On 20 November 2020, Rocket Lab successfully returned an Electron first stage from an orbital launch, the stage softly splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.
[39]
China is researching the reusability of the
Long March 8
system.
[40]
As of May 2020
[update]
, the only operational reusable orbital-class launch systems are the Falcon 9 and
Falcon Heavy
, the latter of which is based upon the Falcon 9. SpaceX is also developing the fully reusable
Starship
launch system.
[41]
Blue Origin
is developing its own
New Glenn
partially reusable orbital rocket, as it is intending to recover and reuse only the first stage.
5 October 2020, Roscosmos signed a development contract for
Amur
a new launcher with a reusable first stage.
[42]
In December 2020, ESA signed contracts to start developing THEMIS, a prototype reusable first stage launcher.
[43]
Return to launch site
[
edit
]
After 1980, but before the 2010s, two orbital launch vehicles developed the capability to
return to the launch site
(RTLS). Both the US
Space Shuttle
?with one of its
abort modes
[44]
[45]
?and the Soviet
Buran
[46]
had a designed-in capability to return a part of the launch vehicle to the launch site via the mechanism of
horizontal-landing
of the
spaceplane
portion of the launch vehicle. In both cases, the main vehicle thrust structure and the large propellant tank were
expendable
, as had been the standard procedure for all orbital launch vehicles flown prior to that time. Both were subsequently demonstrated on actual orbital nominal flights, although both also had an abort mode during launch that could conceivably allow the crew to land the spaceplane following an off-nominal launch.
In the 2000s, both
SpaceX
and
Blue Origin
have
privately developed
a set of technologies to support
vertical landing
of the booster stage of a launch vehicle.
After 2010, SpaceX undertook a
development program
to acquire the ability to bring back and
vertically land
a part of the
Falcon 9
orbital
launch vehicle: the
first stage
. The first successful landing was done in December 2015,
[47]
since then several additional rocket stages landed either at a
landing pad
adjacent to the launch site or on a
landing platform
at sea, some distance away from the launch site.
[48]
The
Falcon Heavy
is similarly designed to reuse the three cores comprising its first stage. On its
first flight
in February 2018, the two outer cores successfully returned to the launch site landing pads while the center core targeted the landing platform at sea but did not successfully land on it.
[49]
Blue Origin
developed similar technologies for bringing back and landing their
suborbital
New Shepard
, and successfully demonstrated return in 2015, and successfully reused the same booster on a second suborbital flight in January 2016.
[50]
By October 2016, Blue had reflown, and landed successfully, that same launch vehicle a total of five times.
[51]
It must however be noted that the launch trajectories of both vehicles are very different, with New Shepard going straight up and down, whereas Falcon 9 has to cancel substantial horizontal velocity and return from a significant distance downrange.
Both Blue Origin and SpaceX also have additional reusable launch vehicles under development. Blue is developing the first stage of the orbital
New Glenn
LV to be reusable, with first flight planned for no earlier than 2024.
SpaceX has a new super-heavy launch vehicle under development for missions to
interplanetary space
. The
SpaceX Starship
is designed to support RTLS, vertical-landing and full reuse of
both
the booster stage and the integrated second-stage/large-spacecraft that are designed for use with Starship.
[52]
Its
first launch attempt
took place in April 2023; however, both stages were lost during ascent.
List of reusable launch vehicles
[
edit
]
Company
|
Vehicle
|
Reusable Component
|
Launched
|
Recovered
|
Relaunched
|
Payload to LEO
|
First Launch
|
Status
|
NASA
|
Space Shuttle
|
Orbiter
|
135
|
133
|
130
|
27,500 kg
|
1981
|
Retired (2011)
|
Side booster
|
270
|
266
|
N/A
[a]
|
SpaceX
|
Falcon 9
|
First stage
|
333
|
289
|
262
|
17,500 kg (reusable)
[53]
22,800 kg (expended)
|
2010
|
Active
|
Fairing half
|
486
[b]
|
300+
(Falcon 9 and Heavy)
[b]
|
Rocket Lab
|
Electron
|
First stage
|
46
|
9
|
0
[c]
|
325 kg (expended)
|
2017
|
Active
|
SpaceX
|
Falcon Heavy
|
Side booster
|
18
|
16
|
14
|
~33,000 kg (all cores reusable)
63,800 kg (expended)
|
2018
|
Active
|
Center core
|
9
|
0
[d]
|
0
|
Fairing half
|
18
[b]
|
300+
(Falcon 9 and Heavy)
[b]
|
SpaceX
|
Starship
|
First stage
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
150,000 kg (reusable)
250,000 kg (expended)
|
2023
|
Active, recovery planned
|
Second stage
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
United Launch Alliance
|
Vulcan Centaur
|
First stage engine module
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
27,200 kg
|
2024
|
Active, recovery planned
|
Space Pioneer
|
Tianlong-3
|
First stage
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
17,000 kg
|
2024
|
Planned
|
Blue Origin
|
New Glenn
|
First stage, fairing
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
45,000 kg
|
2024
|
Planned
|
Galactic Energy
|
Pallas-1
|
First stage
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
5,000 kg
|
2024
|
Planned
|
Deep Blue Aerospace
|
Nebula 1
|
First stage
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
2,000 kg
|
2024
|
Planned
|
Perigee Aerospace
|
Blue Whale 1
|
First stage
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
170 kg
|
2024
|
Planned
|
Rocket Lab
|
Neutron
|
First stage (includes fairing)
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
13,000 kg (reusable)
15,000 kg (expended)
|
2025
|
Planned
|
Stoke Space
|
Nova
|
Fully reusable
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
3,000 kg (reusable)
5,000 kg (stage 2 expended)
7,000 kg (fully expended)
|
2025
|
Planned
|
CAS Space
|
Kinetica-2
|
First stage
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
12,000 kg
|
2025
|
Planned
|
I-space
|
Hyperbola-3
|
First stage
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
8,300 kg (reusable)
13,400 kg (expended)
|
2025
|
Planned
|
LandSpace
|
Zhuque-3
|
First stage
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
18,300 kg (reusable)
21,300 kg (expended)
|
2025
|
Planned
|
Deep Blue Aerospace
|
Nebula 2
|
First stage
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
20,000 kg
|
2025
|
Planned
|
Orienspace
|
Gravity-2
|
First stage
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
17,400 kg (reusable)
21,500 kg(expended)
|
2025
|
Planned
|
Roscosmos
|
Amur
|
First stage
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
10,500 kg
|
2026
|
Planned
|
Relativity Space
|
Terran R
|
First stage
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
23,500 kg (reusable)
33,500 kg (expended)
|
2026
|
Planned
|
PLD Space
|
Miura 5
|
First stage
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
900 kg
|
2026
|
Planned
|
Space Pioneer
|
Tianlong-3H
|
Side booster
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
68,000 kg (expended)
|
2026
|
Planned
|
Center core
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
Orienspace
|
Gravity-3
|
First stage, fairing
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
30,600 kg
|
2027
|
Planned
|
CALT
|
Long March 10A
|
First Stage
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
14,000 kg (reusable)
18,000 kg (expended)
|
2027
|
Planned
|
CALT
|
Long March 9
|
First Stage
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
100,000 kg
|
2033
|
Planned
|
Second Stage
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
- ^
An exact figure for reused SRBs is not possible because the boosters were broken up for parts at the end of recovery and not kept as complete sets of parts.
- ^
a
b
c
d
As of 12 January 2024. A presentation slide at the company's all-hands meeting stated that fairing halves of the Falcon 9 and Heavy rockets had been recovered and reflown "more than 300 times".
[54]
- ^
Rocket Lab announced in 2024 that it will be reusing a recovered first stage.
[55]
- ^
The center booster used for
Arabsat-6A
was landed but not recovered.
List of reusable spacecraft
[
edit
]
Company
|
Spacecraft
|
Launch Vehicle
|
Launched
|
Recovered
|
Relaunched
|
Launch Mass
|
First Launch
|
Status
|
NASA
|
Space Shuttle orbiter
|
Space Shuttle
|
135
|
133
|
130
|
110,000 kg
|
1981
|
Retired (2011)
|
NPO-Energia
|
Buran
|
Energia
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
92,000 kg
|
1988
|
Retired (1988)
|
Boeing
|
X-37
|
Atlas V
,
Falcon
9
,
Falcon Heavy
|
7
|
6
|
5
|
5,000 kg
|
2010
|
Active
|
SpaceX
|
Dragon
|
Falcon 9
|
46
|
44
|
24
|
12,519 kg
|
2010
|
Active
|
NASA
|
Orion
|
Space Launch System
|
2
|
2
|
0
|
10,400 kg (excluding service module and abort system)
|
2014
|
Active, reusability planned
|
Boeing
|
Starliner
|
Atlas V
|
2
|
2
|
0
|
13,000 kg
|
2019
|
Active
|
CASC
|
Chinese reusable experimental spacecraft
|
Long March 2F
|
3
|
2
|
0
[a]
|
unknown
|
2020
|
Active, reusability unknown
|
Sierra Space
|
Dream Chaser
|
Vulcan Centaur
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
9,000 kg
|
2024
|
Planned
|
CAST
|
Mengzhou
|
Long March 10A
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
14,000 kg
|
2027
|
Planned
|
List of reusable suborbital vehicles
[
edit
]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Dawn Aerospace unveils the Mk II Aurora suborbital space plane, capable of multiple same-day flights"
.
TechCrunch
. 28 July 2020
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Strickland, Jackie Wattles, Ashley (2023-04-20).
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.
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. Retrieved
2023-04-29
.
{{
cite web
}}
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.
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31 July
2021
.
- ^
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.
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. 2021-12-15
. Retrieved
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.
- ^
Volosin, Trevor Sesnic, Juan I. Morales (2023-02-04).
"Full Reusability By Stoke Space"
.
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. Retrieved
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.
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cite web
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.
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- ^
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. 26 June 2023.
- ^
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.
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.
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. Retrieved
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.
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. Archived from
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- ^
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.
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"?五"家族迎新 送新一代?人?船??船升空???征五?B??火箭首?三大看点 (LM5 Family in focus: next generation crewed spacecraft and other highlight of the Long March 5B maiden flight)"
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.
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2016
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Pidvysotskyi, Valentyn (July 2021),
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,
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,
S2CID
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,
archived
from the original on 2021-08-18
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Sippel, M; Stappert, S; Bussler, L; Dumont, E (September 2017),
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(PDF)
,
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.
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- ^
"ch2"
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.
- ^
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- ^
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.
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. Retrieved
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.
- ^
NASA-CR-195281, "Utilization of the external tanks of the space transportation system"
- ^
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. Ntrs.nasa.gov. Archived from
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on 7 April 2015
. Retrieved
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.
- ^
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.
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. Archived from
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. Retrieved
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.
- ^
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.
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.
Archived
from the original on 2020-11-08
. Retrieved
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.
- ^
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.
www.esa.int
.
Archived
from the original on 2021-10-01
. Retrieved
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.
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- ^
Lindsey, Clark (2013-03-28).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
- ^
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.
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. Retrieved
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.
- ^
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] launches first recycled rocket ? video"
.
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. Reuters. 31 March 2017.
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- ^
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.
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.
{{
cite web
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.
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.
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Elon Musk (26 February 2024).
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.
- ^
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https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240410860946/en/Rocket-Lab-Returns-Previously-Flown-Electron-to-Production-Line-in-Preparation-for-First-Reflight
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Heribert Kuczera, et al.:
Reusable space transportation systems.
Springer, Berlin 2011,
ISBN
978-3-540-89180-2
.
External links
[
edit
]
|
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Launch systems
|
---|
Active
| |
---|
Retired
| |
---|
In development
| |
---|
Proposals
| |
---|
Canceled
| |
---|
|
|
Spacecraft
|
---|
Active
| |
---|
Retired
| |
---|
In development
| |
---|
Proposals
| |
---|
Cancelled
| |
---|
|
|
|
|
---|
Active
| |
---|
In development
| |
---|
Retired
| |
---|
Cancelled
| |
---|