The Reusable Vehicle Testing (RVT) project was conducted by the Japanese Space Agency (
JAXA
The is the Japanese national air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into orb ...
) from 1998 until 2003. The project involved a series of experimental vehicles to test repeated flights of a reusable rocket. Four complete vehicles were developed during the project. The design of the experimental vehicles addressed various technical challenges for future
Reusable Launch Vehicles (RLV) such as flight on demand, quick turnaround, higher performance, lightweight structures and materials.
The project involved ground and flights tests with the flight testing conducted at the
Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) Noshiro Rocket Testing Center
The is a facility of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), located on the coast of the Sea of Japan in the city of Noshiro in Akita Prefecture, Japan.
History
The Noshiro Rocket Testing Center (NTC) was established in 1962 as one of ...
in the northern part of Japan's main island.
JAXA
The is the Japanese national air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into orb ...
proposed to develop a reusable high altitude rocket based on the technologies demonstrated in the RVT project.
The rocket would take a payload of about 100 kg to an altitude of 100 km. RVT-derived equipment such as engines and attitude control will be used. The development and flight testing is expected to take 5 years and the cost is estimated at 50 billion yen. The rocket, capable of five flights in a day. The cost per flight, based on 2500 flights, is expected to be 10,000 yen, reducing the per flight cost compared to current day expendable rocket systems, which cost between 2 and 6 billion yen. The experimental payloads will be recovered after the flight, which will also minimize costs for the payload developer. Moreover, it will be possible to stop and hover the vehicle at any altitude, which is impossible with conventional sounding rockets.
See also
*
McDonnell Douglas DC-X
The DC-X, short for Delta Clipper or Delta Clipper Experimental, was an uncrewed prototype of a reusable single-stage-to-orbit launch vehicle built by McDonnell Douglas in conjunction with the United States Department of Defense's Strategic ...
*
CORONA
Corona (from the Latin for 'crown') most commonly refers to:
* Stellar corona, the outer atmosphere of the Sun or another star
* Corona (beer), a Mexican beer
* Corona, informal term for the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes the COVID-19 di ...
*
Kankoh-maru
The is a proposed vertical takeoff and landing (VTVL), single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO), reusable launch system (rocket-powered spacecraft). According to a document from July 1997, it would have been manufactured by Kawasaki Heavy Industries and M ...
*
Winged Reusable Sounding rocket WIRES (WInged REusable Sounding rocket) is a Japanese project developing a winged single-stage reusable suborbital rocket as a test bed for a reusable orbital launch system or a crewed suborbital spaceplane. The full-size prototype, called WIRES-X, ...
*
Grasshopper
Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago.
Grasshopp ...
*
Blue Origin
Blue Origin, LLC is an American private spaceflight, privately funded aerospace manufacturer and sub-orbital spaceflight services company headquartered in Kent, Washington. Founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, the founder and executive chairman of Am ...
and its
New Shepard
New Shepard is a fully reusable suborbital launch vehicle developed by Blue Origin for space tourism. The vehicle is named after Alan Shepard, the first American astronaut in space. The vehicle is capable of vertical takeoff and vertical land ...
rocket
*
Armadillo Aerospace
Armadillo Aerospace was an aerospace startup company based in Mesquite, Texas. Its initial goal was to build a crewed suborbital spacecraft capable of space tourism, and it had also stated long-term ambitions of orbital spaceflight. The company wa ...
and
Quad (rocket)
In rocketry, the Armadillo Aerospace Quad vehicle called Pixel is a computer-controlled VTVL rocket that was used in 2006 to compete in the Lunar Lander Challenge.
General description
The quad vehicle design is a pressure fed in blow-down mode fr ...
*
Lunar Lander Challenge
The Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge (NG-LLC) was a competition funded by NASA's Centennial Challenges program. The competition offered a series of prizes for teams that launch a vertical takeoff/vertical landing (VTVL) rocket that achieve ...
*
Project Morpheus
Project Morpheus was a NASA project that began in 2010 to develop a vertical takeoff and vertical landing (VTVL) test vehicle called the Morpheus Lander. It is intended to demonstrate a new nontoxic spacecraft propellant system (methane and ox ...
, NASA program to continue developing ALHAT and Quad landers
References
{{reflist
External links
Currell ModelsYouTube Video of Vehicle Flight TestYouTube Video of Vehicle Flight Test CampaignRVT-derived reusable sounding rocket proposal at HobbyspaceTechnical paper - Flight Demonstration and a Concept for Readiness of Fully Reusable Rocket VehiclesA Concept & Readiness to the Reusable Sounding Rocket Norway-Japan Symposium on Polar, Space, and Climate Research May 29. 2007
Space program of Japan
Reuse
VTVL rockets