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High Altitude Launch for a Practical SSTOExisting engineering materials allow the construction of towers to heights of many kilometers. Orbital launch from a high altitude has significant advantages over sea-level launch due to the reduced atmospheric pressure, resulting in lower atmospheric drag on the vehicle and allowing higher rocket engine performance. high-altitude launch sites are particularly advantageous for single-stage to orbit (SSTO) vehicles, where the payload is typically 2% of the initial launch mass. An earlier paper enumerated some of the advantages of high altitude launch of SSTO vehicles. In this paper, we calculate launch trajectories for a candidate SSTO vehicle, and calculate the advantage of launch at launch altitudes 5 to 25 kilometer altitudes above sea level. The performance increase can be directly translated in to increased payload capability to orbit, ranging from 5 to 20% increase in the mass to orbit. For a candidate vehicle with an initial payload fraction of 2% of gross lift-off weight, this corresponds to 31 % increase in payload (for 5-km launch altitude) to 122% additional payload (for 25-km launch altitude).
Document ID
20150012288
Acquisition Source
Glenn Research Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Landis, Geoffrey A.
(NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Denis, Vincent
(International Space Univ., Inc. Strasbourg, France)
Date Acquired
July 2, 2015
Publication Date
February 2, 2003
Subject Category
Launch Vehicles And Launch Operations
Report/Patent Number
E-13984
Meeting Information
Meeting: Conference on Next Generation Space Transportation, Space Technology & Applications International Forum
Location: Albuquerque, NM
Country: United States
Start Date: February 2, 2002
End Date: February 6, 2002
Funding Number(s)
PROJECT: RTOP 755-A4-02.00
TASK: YOK-3948
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
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