Virgin is now competing with Rocket Lab and SpaceX in getting (small) satellites into orbit. Like the other two, Virgin is going for booster reuse. Where Rocket Lab aim for retrieving a booster from parachute, and SpaceX is landing the booster back on the pad: Virgin is firing from an aeroplane. That 'plane, of course, is landed. Since after launch it's over another longitude, I suppose it just turns around and flies home on what remains of its fuel.
Blue Origin is following. They're planning on 100 km: not in orbit, but well within the exosphere so fit to look down upon the blue marble. More for the sort of people with the spare cash to marble-watch.
Virgin has been doing a lot with aeronautics of late. This time, they used a Boeing 747. I hope Branson by this past success has earned some of his money back; last I heard, his ledger was in the red.
I do like using a moving aerofoil as base for rocketry. By surfing on the atmosphere starting out, you're not using the Rocket Equation like a jerk. When you must fire the rocket you take the air-resistance out of said equation. Especially if you're at 62 km on up, you're physically nearer true LEO; and you're approaching orbital velocity. You even get to reuse the 'plane.
Last year I was wondering about ramjets / scramjets which might not be rockets at all, as we know them. Although from Mach 7 or whatever I'm unsure how retrievability would work.
No comments:
Post a Comment