| Popis: |
Although the performance and operational benefits of air-launch have been recognised since the dawn of the Space Age, few operational systems have been fielded to date and none have generated any significant customer demand. This lack of success is a consequence of two basic factors: 1) performance limitations of the air-launch platform or ‘zero-stage’, especially if existing aircraft are considered, which thereby limit the addressable market; 2) insufficient advantages over ground-launch systems with similar payload performance when expendable rocket stages are used. This paper assesses the potential of a small, fully reusable, subsonic airlaunch system to overcome both of these limiting factors and, in doing so, shows how such a system could break the current space access paradigm (i.e. space access is expensive because the demand for it is small, but the demand is small because space access is expensive). This ‘disruptive’ potential is assessed in terms of three key system aspects – performance, operations and economics – and thereby highlights the significant and unique benefits of a small, fully reusable, subsonic air-launch system. |
