Reusable launch system

A Space Shuttle is a reusable transport vehicle for space travel, the landing returns to earth after a space mission like an airplane.

Space Shuttles are clearly distinguished by their reusability and its taxable gliding of the country with capsules (eg, the capsule of the Apollo program or the Soyuz landing capsule ) equipped ships. Spaceships landing capsules for the return to Earth can be used only once. The landing capsules can be controlled only when flying through the atmosphere.

History

While the first space pioneers suggested for the way to space rockets, in particular Hermann Oberth in his seminal book Path to Space Travel (1929 ), the Austrian space pioneer Eugen Sänger advocated aircraft with rocket propulsion. Fundamentally, the singer was designed together with the mathematician and physicist Irene Bredt, his future wife, in Germany Concept about a rocket engine for long-range bombers. The proposal made ​​there a transcontinental America Bombers led to the silver bird project.

Dyna- Soar

The project Dyna- Soar (English Dynamic Soaring for Dynamic gliding ) of the U.S. Air Force launched in 1957 and had the goal to develop a spaceplane that can be used as a reconnaissance aircraft and bombers as well as rescue operations in space, satellite maintenance, and sabotage of enemy satellites. The, also known as X-20, 10.77 meters long and 6.34 meters wide missile should have a crew of a man. As the carrier rocket for orbital flights, a titanium - III was intended.

Space Shuttle

The U.S. space shuttle is the first and only space shuttle type that was actually used for manned missions in space. Since the 1970s, five room airworthy copies were built, which brought it together on 135 starts. Two of the five spacecraft, the Challenger and Columbia are, an accident in the 30 years of service.

Spiral

The Mikoyan -Gurevich MiG -105 " Spiral" (nickname: Lapot Russian лапоть for Holzschuh - because of its nose shape ) was established in 1965 as part of the spiral -EPOS program developed by the Soviet Union with the aim of building a spacecraft with reusable components. She served as a prototype for the space vehicle (OS). Other components were the auxiliary rocket ( RB) and the supersonic carrier aircraft (GSR ). The development of spiral - EPOS was eventually discontinued in 1975 in favor of the development of the space shuttle Buran.

BOR

BOR ( Bezpilotnyj Orbitalnyj Raketoplan ) was the name of a series of test missiles, with those experiences for the development of the Soviet space shuttle Buran should be collected. 1973 announced the Russian VPK on a space program for the exploration of space shuttles. The aim of the BOR program was the development of heat shields and the general aerodynamic structures of a space shuttle. With the last four of these test devices ( Kosmos 1374, 1445, 1517 and 1614) orbital flights were conducted.

Space Shuttle Buran

The Soviet space shuttle Buran (Russian Буран for Buran - Snowstorm ) was approved in 1976 and developed from 1980. The Buran 1:01 was taken on November 15, 1988 by an Energia rocket on its first and only flight into orbit. Since the Buran had no life support systems, the flight was unmanned. It took about 3.5 hours.

With the second Soviet space shuttle Ptichka ( " little bird " ) should be included from 1991 onwards, the regular flight operations. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, however, the project was too expensive. The Russian space shuttle program was officially discontinued in 1993.

Hermes spaceplane

The European Space Agency (ESA) with the planned space shuttle Hermes a similar system for the Ariane 5 was intended as a launcher. Unlike the Soviet Buran system Hermes should not piggyback on the launcher ( in Parallelstufung ), but at the top sit ( in Tandemstufung ). With this configuration, the entire support system would have been less prone to errors since the start departing parts of the outer wall of the shuttle would not be damaged, what was the cause of the Columbia disaster in 2003. Because of the high costs of approximately six billion euros the development in 1992 has been set.

HOPE -X

The Japanese space agency JAXA developed a space shuttle with the HOPE -X project. Plagued by financial and technical problems, no success so far, however, refrain.

Singer II

Eugen Sänger was conceived in the 1960s, a space plane, which evolved with the name Singer II in the late 1980s, but was not built.

Hopper

In the ESA run concept studies and preparatory developments for an unmanned space transportation system, the hopper.

Kliper

The Russian space agency Roscosmos developed with the Kliper ( depending on the translation also clipper or clipper ) a space plane. He should be able to accommodate 700 kg payload and six astronauts. The maiden flight was scheduled for around 2012. It was also discussed cooperation with ESA. 2007, the program was discontinued due to high costs.

Castore

On 24 February 2007 the prototype of the planned Space Shuttle Castore was tested in Italy, a nine-meter long, twelve feet wide missile with a weight of 1250 kg. The aircraft was pulled at an unmanned level balloon to an altitude of 25 km and slipped from there to the ground. Through numerous sensors the behavior was measured on entry into the atmosphere, where the sound barrier was broken. Castore finally fell as planned in the Mediterranean and was salvaged. More scientific, perspective but also manned flights are planned for the future.

Dream Chaser

Established in 2008 by the Sierra Nevada Corporation acquired, privately funded space company SpaceDev developed under the Commercial Crew Development Program of NASA the space vehicle Dream Chaser. The Dream Chaser is based on the concept of a lifting body.

Spaceliner

Spaceliner is a concept for a suborbital, hyper supersonic winged passenger vans, which is under investigation since 2005 by the German Aerospace Center (DLR ). The two-stage, vertical takeoff configuration of unmanned boosters and manned passenger stage ( Orbiter ) is designed for 50 passengers and has a total of eleven liquid rocket engines ( Booster 9, Orbiter 2 ), which are operated with cryogenic oxygen (LOX ) and hydrogen ( LH2). After burnout of the engines the Orbiterstufe can travel great distances in a very short time intercontinental glide. Depending on the mission altitudes of 80 km and Mach numbers above 20 can thereby be achieved. Flight times will be with the Space liner on the Australia - Europe route just 90 minutes or on the route Europe - California no longer than 60 minutes.

Skylon

The British Skylon concept study provides a space shuttle, the horizontal starts with air-breathing engines. In 26 km altitude, if not longer sufficient in the upper atmosphere of oxygen to operate, it switches to an internal oxygen tank, which allows the achievement of the orbit. Skylon is a payload of 12 tonnes or can transport 24 passengers.

SHEFEX

The German development project SHEFEX Sharp Edge Flight Experiment, German: the sharp-edged flight experiment is a project of the German Aerospace Center (DLR ) for the development of some new, cheaper and safer design principles for space capsules and space vehicles with re-entry capability in the atmosphere and their integration into a complete system. DLR has to explain: The goal of the research is a spaceplane that will from 2020 be traceable for experiments under microgravity conditions available. The spaceplane project has been named REX Free Flyer.