A unique project was announced by the American company SpaceX. It intends to present the world's only absolutely reusable spacecraft and the same launch vehicle. A distinctive feature of the project is that all parts of the unique complex will have to return to Earth using rocket engines. This know-how fundamentally differs from the space shuttle shuttles that return to Earth on wings, and the Soyuz, which use parachutes for landing.
Elon Musk, the head of SpaceX, spoke about this unusual project at a press conference in Washington last week. As the project developers plan, the two-stage Falcon 9 launch vehicle will launch the Dragon spacecraft into orbit. This ship is actually considered reusable - in each voyage, only the unit compartment is lost. The capsule containing the ship's crew can be reused.
However, the most innovative in the project is a reusable rocket. After the end of its flight phase, both stages of the launch vehicle will have to descend into the atmosphere (while the second stage is armed with a heat shield) and land at the cosmodrome, braking with their own jet streams. In the future, these missile units can be refueled and prepared again for the next launch.
The rocket's most striking and controversial know-how is its reusable second stage.
In the near future, the SpaceX descent vehicle will also have to descend in the same way - on engines, instead of parachutes.
American engineers believe that the "Dragon" will be able to complete the flight easily to slow down on its rocket engines.
All reusable components of the projected system: the descent vehicle, the first and second stages of the launch vehicle.
We are wonderfully aware of the return of space shuttle solid fuel boosters to Earth. We have also heard about a number of unrealized projects of reusable first stages (this has already been discussed in Russia). But the real challenge came from American designers and engineers - the reusable rocket stage.
After all, this step will have to develop the first cosmic speed. As soon as the ship or satellite separates, reduce the orbital speed and enter the dense layers of the atmosphere, again decelerate by turning on the engines and land on four landing supports, like a lunar module.
According to media reports, Musk thus intends to drastically reduce the cost of human space flights, thereby bringing closer the moment of the beginning of the colonization of other worlds, Mars for example. SpaceX is making plans to send astronauts to the Red Planet in the next 20 years.
The head of SpaceX says that at the moment any launch of a Falcon 9 rocket costs 50-60 million dollars, and the cost of fuel is only 200 thousand dollars. Thus, with multiple use of all stages of the launch vehicle, the cost of delivering manned spacecraft and cargo into space would be reduced by an order of magnitude.
Elon Musk is wonderfully aware that this project is not easy. He also does not give a final date. “We have the entire project on paper, we did calculations and modeling - everything works. Now we need to make sure that reality and modeling come to a common denominator. Because more often than not, if this is not achieved, reality wins,”says Mr. Musk.
It should be added that at the moment the company is preparing for a new launch of the Dragon ship, using its Falcon 9 launch vehicle, only in its usual version.
Dragon-u will perform a demonstration flight and dock with the ISS in accordance with the US Space Agency's Commercial Orbital Transportation (COTS) program.
The Dragon capsule at SpaceX's Hawthorne, California facility (Roger Gilbertson / SpaceX).
In August this year, a prelaunch test of the Falcon 9 was carried out at Launch Pad 40 at Cape Canaveral. The testing program included refueling the launch vehicle and carrying out all operations preceding the launch, with the countdown stopped a second before the launch. (Kyle Cothern / SpaceX).
Representatives of "SpaceX" believe that they themselves are ready on December 19, 2011 to launch their own spacecraft. However, this date has not been officially confirmed and may be moved to early 2012.
If the experiment carried out in orbit is successful, then already on the next flight "Dragon" could deliver a payload to the ISS.
By the way, the US authorities are counting on the development of space by private companies. The US Senate Appropriations Committee on September 15 approved a $ 500 million appropriation for commercial space travel in NASA's 2012 budget.
