Flyback booster with removable rocket propulsion module

Details Flyback booster with removable rocket propulsion module Flyback booster with removable rocket propulsion module

2000-08-20

2003-09-02

Barefoot, Galen L. (Department: 3644)

Aeronautics and astronautics

Composite aircraft

C244S055000, C244S058000, C244S172200

Reexamination Certificate

active

06612522

ABSTRACT:

TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus used for aiding in the transport of payloads from the Earth's surface to outer space. Specifically, the present invention relates to a reusable flyback booster that incorporates a removable rocket propulsion module within an airframe. Still more specifically, the present invention relates to a reusable flyback booster comprising an aircraft, having air breathing engines and capable of landing on a runway, said aircraft functionally enclosing a separate launch vehicle stage. The present invention may be used as the first stage of a multistage launch vehicle. Thus the present invention also relates to a comprehensive launch vehicle system architecture wherein the stage used in the flyback booster and the upper stages are selected to cost optimize the multistage launch vehicle for launch of a specific payload or class of payloads.
BACKGROUND ART
The present invention's background art is generally found in the art of space launch vehicles. Patents in this field of art are classified generally in international class B64G and in U.S. class 244.
The inventors identify the following background art because they believe it will be useful in understanding, searching, and examining the invention. This invention lies in an area of the technical arts where it really is necessary to be a rocket scientist to understand the invention. The inventors anticipate that they may be required to explain the invention to persons who are not technically trained, such as administrators, jurists or judges. To aid in understanding the present inventors they offer: 1. an overview of information on space launch vehicles, including some technical and cost data on certain specific vehicles; 2. information on the background art related to partially reusable launch systems and 3. relevant U.S. patents. Taken as a whole, this body of information represents the current state of the art in launch vehicle recoverable boosters, as the inventors know it at the time of their filing of this patent application. It also illustrates the enormous complexity of this field of art, which is currently in a dynamic period of development.
Background of Space Launch Vehicles
Although sounding rockets may reach altitudes above the atmosphere of the Earth, the term space launch vehicle is applied usually to those rocket boosters designed to place satellites in orbit or to impart Earth-escape velocity to spacecraft.
By about 1950 the technology of rocket propulsion had reached a level at which consideration of a project to launch an Earth satellite became feasible. Worldwide scientific studies during the IGY of 1957-58 provided the basis for funding. In 1955 both the United States and the Soviet Union announced satellite programs as part of their national effort in the IGY.
When Sputnik 1 and 2 were launched in 1957 the Soviet Union released no details of their launch vehicles. In May 1958 Sputnik 3, weighing nearly 1,360 kilograms, was launched. It was not until 1967 that the basic Soviet launch vehicle was displayed. It was a 2½-stage vehicle of the “A” series (in this case, “A-1”): two stages with four drop-away booster pods. Each booster pod contained four rocket engines (totaling 16) with propellant tankage, and the central core had four engines. Propellants were liquid oxygen and kerosene.
The United States launched its early satellites with two different vehicles, the Jupiter-C and Vanguard. Jupiter-C was a modified Redstone liquid-propellant ballistic weapon of medium range to which were added more tankage length and three upper stages of clustered solid-propellant rockets. The modification was originally designed to achieve a velocity of six kilometers per second to test a nose cone (reentry vehicle). The desired velocity was obtained with two upper stages, one a cluster of four solid-propellant rockets and the other a single rocket. By increasing the final velocity 1.5 kilometers per second to the required 7.5 kilometers per second, satellite velocity could be obtained for a small scientific payload. The additional velocity was obtained by adding another stage with a cluster of solid-propellant rockets so that the upper stages consisted of 11, three, and finally one rocket carrying a payload weighing 8.2 kilograms. In 1954 the Army Ballistic Missile Agency and the Office of Naval Research jointly proposed this scheme, known as Project Orbiter, but a newly designed Vanguard launch vehicle was selected. Failures in early attempts to launch Vanguard, however, resulted in eventual approval of the Project Orbiter approach. Thus the first U.S. satellite, Explorer 1, was launched by a Jupiter-C on Jan. 31, 1958.
The Vanguard launch vehicle was a three-stage booster approximately equal in length (about 22 meters) to the Jupiter-C but much lighter in takeoff weight (10,250 kilograms compared to 29,000 kilograms). Vanguard launched its first satellite (1.4 kilograms) into high orbit on Mar. 17. 1958. After a few more flights, the Jupiter-C was retired in 1958 and the Vanguard in 1959.
During the 1960s the United States developed a series of standard launch vehicles. The Air Force modified a Titan II intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) for space launch purposes by strapping two solid-propellant booster rockets, three meters in diameter, to the liquid-propellant core vehicle. The Titan IIIC was used for large military satellites. Then NASA increased performance of the obsolete Thor intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) by adding solid-propellant boosters. A liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen upper stage, Centaur, was used on obsolete Atlas and Titan ICBMs to launch large spacecraft.
The Saturn series of NASA launch vehicles was developed specifically for the Apollo lunar mission program. The two operational Saturn models were the two-stage Saturn IB and three-stage Saturn V. The Saturn IB was used for Earth orbital developmental missions of Apollo, while the Saturn V was employed for lunar missions. Saturn V stood 110.6 meters high and weighed over 2,700,000 kilograms at launch. It could place 104,000 kilograms in orbit and send 45,000 kilograms to escape velocity.
For some years the launching of spacecraft was limited to the United States and the Soviet Union. The reason was that the early rocket-powered launch vehicles were based on long-range ballistic missiles, which only these countries had developed. France was the third nation to launch a satellite (1965), followed by Japan (1970), the People's Republic of China (1970), and the United Kingdom (1971). Under the auspices of the European Space Agency (ESA), the nations of Western Europe developed the Ariane expendable launcher during the 1970s to assure themselves of independent launch capability. This action was taken, in part, in response to the U.S. refusal to guarantee flights for communications satellites that might compete with U.S. telecommunications carriers. A three-stage vehicle that burns storable and solid propellants in its first two stages and employs a cryogenic engine in its third, Ariane has become a formidable competitor for commercial space launch services, capturing about half of the global market. It is capable of launching two satellites of the U.S. Delta class (an Earth-orbit payload of 1,770 kilograms) at one time or one Atlas-Centaur-class satellite (an Earth-orbit payload of 4,670 kilograms). With the new cryogenic propellant core, Ariane is approaching payload weights that only the Shuttle can handle.
Specific Launch Vehicles—Cost of Launch Vehicles
An important factor affecting space mission cost is the cost of launch vehicles. Many of the major launch vehicles are designed to place payloads of 1500-6000 kg into geostationary transfer orbit, at a typical cost of $50M-150M. Such launch performance is to little and costs are far too high for the low-cost missions satellite operators require.
Small Expendable Launchers
Many of the early Western space launchers had, by modern standards, very small payloads. The U.S. Vanguard rocket could place 20 kg into LEO

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