THE VALUE OF LARGE, PRELAUNCH CROSS RANGE IN AIRCRAFT-TYPE ORBITAL LAUNCHERS,

Abstract

Many of the space missions postulated for the next decade require execution of orbital rendezvous. Rendezvous vehicles will be needed to perform space rescue, to ferry materials for space platform construction, to supply and service friendly orbiters, and to inspect, capture or destroy hostile satellites. All these missions require that a relatively large payload be delivered into a specified orbit pre-determined by another vehicle - the target. It is the purpose of this paper to show that for maximum payload the rendezvous task can best be performed by staging the interceptor from a mobile, aircraft-type launcher. In particular, this report demonstrates that only two mobile launchers, configured for a cruise radius of 2700 nm, can provide rendezvous capability against any pass of any near-earth satellite orbit. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 1967
Accession Number
AD0672974

Entities

People

  • Howard G. Clark
  • Richard J. Schulte

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aircrafts
  • Artificial Satellites
  • Construction
  • Launchers
  • Materials
  • Missions
  • Orbits
  • Payload
  • Platforms
  • Rendezvous
  • Satellite Orbits
  • Space Missions
  • Vehicles

Readers

  • Aerospace Engineering.
  • Control Systems Engineering.
  • Sensor Fusion and Tracking Systems.

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Orbital Debris
  • Space - Satellites