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Recoverable Booster
A booster is a rocket (or rocket engine) used either in the first stage of a multistage launch vehicle or in parallel with longer-burning sustainer rockets to augment the space vehicle's takeoff thrust and payload capability. Boosters are traditionally necessary to launch spacecraft into low Earth orbit (absent a single-stage-to-orbit design), and are especially important for a space vehicle to go beyond Earth orbit. The booster is dropped to fall back to Earth once its fuel is expended, a point known as ''booster engine cut-off'' (BECO). Following booster separation, the rest of the launch vehicle continues flight with its core or upper-stage engines. The booster may be recovered, refurbished and reused, as was the case of the steel casings used for the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters. Drop-away engines The SM-65 Atlas rocket used three engines, one of which was fixed to the fuel tank, and two of which were mounted on a skirt which dropped away at BECO. This was used as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Delta II GEM 40 Booster
Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier Delta may also refer to: Places Canada * Delta, British Columbia ** Delta (federal electoral district), a federal electoral district ** Delta (provincial electoral district) * Delta, Ontario United States * Mississippi Delta * Arkansas Delta * Delta, Alabama * Delta Junction, Alaska * Delta, Colorado * Delta, Illinois * Delta, Iowa * Delta, Kentucky * Delta, Louisiana * Delta, Missouri * Delta, North Carolina * Delta, Ohio * Delta, Pennsylvania * Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, California * Delta, Utah * Delta, Wisconsin, a town and an unincorporated community * Delta County (other) Elsewhere * Delta Island, Antarctica * Delta Stream, Antarctica * Delta, Minas Gerais, Brazil * Nile Delta, Egypt * Delta, Thessaloniki, Gree ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atlas-Centaur
The Atlas-Centaur was a United States expendable launch vehicle derived from the SM-65 Atlas D missile. The vehicle featured a Centaur (rocket stage), Centaur upper stage, the first such stage to use high-performance liquid hydrogen as fuel. Launches were conducted from Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 36, Launch Complex 36 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in Florida. After a strenuous flight test program, Atlas-Centaur went on to launch several crucial spaceflight missions for the United States, including Surveyor 1, and Pioneer Pioneer 10, 10/Pioneer 11, 11. The vehicle would be continuously developed and improved into the 1990s, with the last direct descendant being the highly successful Atlas II. Early development Convair, the manufacturer of the Atlas, developed the Centaur (rocket stage), Centaur upper stage specifically for that booster, sharing its pressure-stabilized tank structure. Technical Centaur was the first r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
VTVL
Vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) is a form of takeoff and landing for rockets. Multiple VTVL craft have flown. A notable VTVL vehicle was the Apollo Lunar Module which delivered the first humans to the Moon. Building on the decades of development, SpaceX utilised the VTVL concept for its flagship Falcon 9 first stage, which has delivered over three hundred successful powered landings so far. VTVL technologies were first seriously developed for the Apollo program. By the '90s, development on large reliable restartable rocket engines made it possible to use the already matured technology for rocket stages. The first pioneer was the McDonnell Douglas DC-X demonstrator. After the success of the DC-X prototype, the concept was developed substantially with small rockets after 2000, in part due to incentive prize competitions like the Lunar Lander Challenge. Starting in the mid-2000s, VTVL was under intense development as a technology for reusable rockets large enough ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship
An autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS) is a modified ocean-going barge developed by SpaceX and equipped with propulsion systems to maintain precise position and a large floating landing platform, landing platform. They were developed to recover the First stage (rocketry), first stage (also called the booster) of its SpaceX launch vehicles, launch vehicles. By recovering and reusing these boosters, SpaceX has significantly reduced the cost of space launch. SpaceX operates three ASDS: ''Just Read the Instructions (II)'' (JRTI), ''A Shortfall of Gravitas'' (ASOG), and ''Of Course I Still Love You'' (OCISLY). JRTI and ASOG operate from Port Canaveral supporting launches from John F. Kennedy Space Center, Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station landing in the Atlantic Ocean, while OCISLY operates from the Port of Long Beach supporting launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base landing in the Pacific Ocean. Depending on mission requirements, SpaceX can Return ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Return To Launch Site
A launch vehicle is typically a rocket-powered vehicle designed to carry a payload (a crewed spacecraft or satellites) from Earth's surface or lower atmosphere to outer space. The most common form is the ballistic missile-shaped multistage rocket, but the term is more general and also encompasses vehicles like the Space Shuttle. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pad, supported by a launch control center and systems such as vehicle assembly and fueling. Launch vehicles are engineered with advanced aerodynamics and technologies, which contribute to high operating costs. An orbital launch vehicle must lift its payload at least to the boundary of space, approximately and accelerate it to a horizontal velocity of at least . Suborbital vehicles launch their payloads to lower velocity or are launched at elevation angles greater than horizontal. Practical orbital launch vehicles use chemical propellants such as solid fuel, liquid hydrogen, kerosene, liquid oxygen, or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Falcon 9 Rocket
Falcon 9 is a partially reusable, two-stage-to-orbit, medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX. The first Falcon 9 launch was on June 4, 2010, and the first commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) launched on October 8, 2012. In 2020, it became the first commercial rocket to launch humans to orbit. The Falcon 9 has been noted for its reliability and high launch cadence, with successful launches, two in-flight failures, one partial failure and one pre-flight destruction. It is the most-launched American orbital rocket in history. The rocket has two stages. The first (booster) stage carries the second stage and payload to a predetermined speed and altitude, after which the second stage accelerates the payload to its target orbit. The booster is capable of landing vertically to facilitate reuse. This feat was first achieved on flight 20 in December 2015. As of , SpaceX has successfully landed Falcon 9 boo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SpaceX Reusable Launch System Development Program
SpaceX has private spaceflight, privately funded the development of Orbital spaceflight, orbital spacecraft, launch systems that can be reusable launch vehicle, reused many times, similar to the reusability of aircraft. SpaceX has developed technologies since the 2010s to facilitate full and rapid reuse of space launch vehicles. The project's long-term objectives include returning a launch vehicle multistage rocket, first stage to the launch site within minutes and to return a second stage to the launch pad, following orbital realignment with the launch site and atmospheric entry, atmospheric reentry in up to 24 hours. SpaceX's long term goal would have been reusability of both stages of their orbital launch vehicle, and the first stage would be designed to allow reuse a few hours after return. Development of reusable second stages for Falcon 9 was later abandoned in favor of developing SpaceX Starship, Starship. However, SpaceX still developed reusable payload fairings for the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SpaceX
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the company has made numerous advancements in rocket propulsion, reusable launch vehicles, human spaceflight and satellite constellation technology. , SpaceX is the world's dominant space launch provider, its launch cadence eclipsing all others, including private competitors and national programs like the Chinese space program. SpaceX, NASA, and the United States Armed Forces work closely together by means of Government contractor, governmental contracts. SpaceX was founded by Elon Musk in 2002 with a vision of decreasing the costs of space launches, paving the way to SpaceX ambition of colonizing Mars, a sustainable colony on Mars. In 2008, Falcon 1 successfully launched into orbit after three failed launch attempts. The company then pivoted towar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Shuttle Program
The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine transportation for Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS), taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft where it was the only item funded for development, as a proposed nuclear shuttle in the plan was cancelled in 1972. It flew 135 missions and carried 355 astronauts from 16 countries, many on multiple trips. The Space Shuttle, composed of an Space Shuttle orbiter, orbiter launched with two reusable Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster, solid rocket boosters and a disposable external fuel tank, carried up to eight astronauts and up to of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO). When its mission was complete, the orbiter would atmospheric reentry, reenter the Earth's atmosphere and land like a glider (aircraft), glider at either ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liquid Rocket Booster
A liquid rocket booster (LRB) uses liquid fuel and oxidizer to give a liquid-propellant or hybrid rocket an extra boost at take-off, and/or increase the total payload that can be carried. It is attached to the side of a rocket. Unlike solid rocket boosters, LRBs can be throttled down if the engines are designed to allow it, and can be shut down safely in an emergency for additional escape options in human spaceflight. History By 1926, US scientist Robert Goddard had constructed and successfully tested the first rocket using liquid fuel at Auburn, Massachusetts. For the Cold War era R-7 Semyorka missile, which later evolved into the Soyuz rocket, this concept was chosen because it allowed all of its many rocket engines to be ignited and checked for function while on the launch pad. The Soviet Energia rocket of the 1980s used four Zenit liquid fueled boosters to loft both the '' Buran'' and the experimental '' Polyus'' space battlestation in two separate launches. Two versi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Falcon Heavy
Falcon Heavy is a super heavy-lift launch vehicle with partial reusability that can carry cargo into Earth orbit and beyond. It is designed, manufactured and launched by American aerospace company SpaceX. The rocket consists of a center core on which two Falcon 9 boosters are attached, and a second stage on top of the center core. Falcon Heavy has the second highest payload capacity of any currently operational launch vehicle behind NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), and the fourth-highest capacity of any rocket to reach orbit, trailing behind the Space Launch System, SLS, Energia (rocket), Energia and the Saturn V. SpaceX conducted Falcon Heavy test flight, Falcon Heavy's maiden launch on 6 February 2018, at 20:45 Coordinated Universal Time, UTC. As a Boilerplate (spaceflight), dummy payload, the rocket carried Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster, a Tesla Roadster belonging to SpaceX founder Elon Musk, with a mannequin dubbed "Starman" in the driver's seat. The second Falcon Heavy laun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Delta IV Heavy
The Delta IV Heavy (Delta 9250H) was an expendable heavy-lift launch vehicle, the largest type of the Delta IV family. It had the highest capacity of any operational launch vehicle in the world after the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011 until the Falcon Heavy debuted in 2018, and it was the world's third highest-capacity launch vehicle in operation at the time of its retirement in 2024. It was manufactured by United Launch Alliance (ULA) and was first launched in 2004. Delta IV Heavy was the last operating member of the Delta IV family, and its final flight was on 9 April 2024. It is succeeded by the Vulcan Centaur rocket. The Delta IV Heavy first stage consisted of a central Common Booster Core (CBC), with two additional CBCs as liquid rocket boosters instead of the GEM-60 solid rocket motors used by the Delta IV Medium+ versions. At lift-off, all three rocket engines would operate at full thrust, and 44 seconds later the central engine would throttle down to 5 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
