Questions tagged [launch-vehicle]
Questions about a craft used to propel payloads into space, usually a rocket-powered vehicle
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What kind of rocket will ESA(?) launch from Mars? Who will build it?
The NASA-credited images below are from the BBC News article Europe pushes ahead with 'dune buggy' Mars rover which explains that it will drive around quickly on it's big 70 cm wheels (see article for ...
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What parts of a rocket are particularly cheap or inexpensive?
Related: What is the most expensive part of a rocket?
What parts of a launch vehicle, if any, are particularly inexpensive?
This can mean "similar in cost to common commercial-grade analogues", "...
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Has any rocket been launched into orbit from a plain flat surface?
Related: Why will Superheavy/Starship have a landing pad so close to the launch pad?
Most launch vehicles are launched from somewhat complex launchpads with towers, erectors, flame trenches or ...
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How could the landing date of Perseverance Rover be fixed irrespective of 26 days launch window?
I am very much aware of this question from 2018 by @uhoh - Why would InSight's arrival date at Mars be fixed, and independent of the launch date?. I was led here by a similar question which arose in ...
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Is SLS capable of launching the core stage into LEO?
After watching the Hazegrayart video If Rockets were Transparent I realized that I didn't really have a clear idea what the Space Launch System (SLS) is capable of doing.
Question: Is SLS capable of ...
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Who started conducting multiple-payload launches routinely, and on which vechicle?
I know multiple-payload launches are routine these days, and everyone seems to have their own reignitable kick-stage. But who were the first to start doing that?
This is similar to this question, but ...
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Could any modern launch vehicle have put Ulysses in it's polar heliocentric without going to another planet first?
This answer to Why aren't satellites launched into a Polar LEO to get into Polar Heliocentric Orbit? leaves me wondering if it could be done today without the trip to Jupiter.
Could a replica of the ...
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80 views
What criteria influence launcher aspect ratio?
One factor when designing a launcher is the total $\Delta V$ required. For a given $\Delta V$, engineers can define the propellant quantity. From this quantity they can define the volume of the ...
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Missing Launch Vehicle
Early Soviet era launch vehicles had a variety of designations, e.g. the well known Vostok launcher and its derivations have been known as the R7, 8K72, Semyorka, SS-6, Sapwood, A-1 and SL-3 .
I'm ...
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Would the 6.5 ton capable Blue Moon lander fit in New Glenn?
As the 2 massive projects of the same company, are they designed to be compatible for NASA's CLPS program ? New Glenn's said to have a 7 m payload fairing diameter but as far as I know, Blue Moon's ...
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Why doesn't the USA use structurally stronger rockets for the more important launches?
Russia uses the R-7 ICBM-derived Soyuz launch vehicle for most of its space launches. The advantage of it is that there's no concern on what the weather is like on launch day and Soyuz launches almost ...
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How do spherical SRB's compare to long skinny ones? What do their thrust curves look like?
Most SRBs are long and skinny, probably because most are used low in Earth's atmosphere where aerodynamic drag is large.
But here are some very short SRBs, one seemingly spherical except for the ...
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How many stages were used to put Iran's satellite NOUR 01 (45529) into its orbit?
Fox News' Iran-launched military satellite entered Earth's orbit, US Space Command announces says:
āIranās first military satellite, Noor, was launched this morning from central Iran in two stages. ...
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1answer
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Why are balloon tanks used by so few rocket designs?
Balloon tanks, first used on the MX-774 sounding rocket (the direct, though distant, ancestor of the Atlas family of missiles and launchers), are structurally stabilised by internal gas pressure, ...
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Does NASA really report the power of rockets in horsepower?
On a recent episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson said:
And to this day NASA will still report the power of rockets in horsepower, which is completely absurd, ...
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Shape of satellite launch vehicle
I was watching videos on YouTube, and I came across a fact that satellite launch vehicle has shape like a nose or you can ogive shape and I search on Google related to that, and I found that it ...
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Have studies / worked examples, including mass figures, been published for these reentry methods for reusable upper stages?
(Related: is there a general rule of thumb for thermal protection systems?)
For a fully-reusable launch vehicle to be developed, we need a lightweight thermal protection system and method for (...
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Rockoon on steroids
In typical rockoon a balloon is the lifting body to the upper atmosphere where a rocket is released and ignited. But I would like to ask about a variation to launch small payloads to space.
Instead ...
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Does Arianespace have a modified Soyuz launch vehicle?
Ars Technica's OneWeb joins the satellite Internet gold rush this week says:
The company chose to partner with Arianespace and its modified Soyuz launch vehicle for the 2020 launches because, ...
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Launch system to get a 75,000 kg object to geostationary orbit?
Is there any current launch system that could get a 75,000 kg object to geostationary orbit? If not, am I correct in assuming the Saturn V could have gotten such an object there?
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Were there any launch vehicles with so heavily pronounced Plume Induced Flow Separation (PIFS), other than Saturn V?
This answer describes a very interesting phenomenon of Plume Induced Flow Separation on Saturn V vehicle.
(Apollo-6 S68-29737 photo, courtesy NASA)
This is, basically, when "fire" from ...
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Why is the diameter of the boosters of some launch vehicles smaller than the diameter of their payload fairing?
Whilst watching yesterday's Starliner launch I've noticed how skinny that Centaur (3.1m) looks compared to the CST-100 (4.5m).
Looking up the Atlas V I was amazed to find out that it has even larger (...
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1answer
149 views
NASA's definition of a launch vehicle
Does NASA's use of the term launch vehicle apply only to those that ascend from the Earth's surface and leave the atmosphere? If so why is the term limited that way?
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Are RTG-powered spacecraft restricted to only some launch vehicles? [duplicate]
This answer by PearsonArtPhoto mentions for spacecraft powered by an RTG there's "only a single rocket that can launch them (Atlas rockets)". Of course that probably doesn't apply to non-US launches, ...
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Commercial 3DoF/6DoF trajectory simulation and optimization tool for launch vehicle
Is there any 3DoF/6DoF trajectory simulation and optimization tool for launch vehicles like POST available commercially? If there whether it's how reliable when it comes to using for real-time ...
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1answer
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What is the purpose of the pairs of cylinders on the interstage of PSLV?
In the following images, it can be seen that the interstage (separating the first stage PS1 and the second stage PS2) of the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (...
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1answer
136 views
Can a lighter rocket lift more than a heavier rocket?
Let us consider two launch vehicles - "A" and "B". If "A" has a larger wet mass than "B", does this imply "A" has a higher payload capacity to a particular orbit, from a particular launch site than "B"...
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Are solid-fueled launch vehicles faster to orbit than liquid-fueled ones?
The (relatively) new Kuaizhou family of launch vehicles is described as "quick-reaction", and is based on ASAT and ICBM heritage.
Solid-fueled rockets have been, historically, cheaper to launch on, ...
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4answers
2k views
Why do we need dedicated launch vehicles for small satellites?
The Wikipedia webpage on Small-lift launch vehicle gives a huge list of dedicated launch vehicles with a maximum payload capacity of 2,000 kg (4,400 lb) for small satellites, which are either retired,...
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1answer
320 views
Why doesn't Ariane-5 lift off at T=0 seconds?
I have seen Ariane-5 lift off at T+07 seconds and not at (or close to) T=00 seconds. The following statement is from the Ariane-5 User's Manual (Page 35, Section 2.3 - Typical Mission Profile):
The ...
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2answers
512 views
How many space launch vehicles are under development worldwide?
I need to know how many space launch vehicles (across categories - small, medium , heavy etc) are under development, worldwide.
For instance this report talks only about the number of Small Space ...
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If a comet-sniffing spacecraft were launched today, could it catch up to newly-discovered Īµ>3 C/2019 Q4 (Borisov)?
As found in this answer to What makes scientists already so certain that Comet C/2019 Q4 (Borisov) is a comet and not an asteroid? the orbital parameters of this eccentricity > 3 visitor to our solar ...
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1answer
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What is “additional line load” [N/mm] for the Ariane 5 launch vehicle?
In the textbook Spacecraft Systems Engineering 4th ed. page 14, table 2.1 ("Acceleration values for the Ariane 5 launch vehicle") provides data on the loading of the Ariane 5 spacecraft. One of the ...
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3answers
489 views
Why don't launcher rockets ordinarily have names?
There are names for the class or family of launcher, e.g. Delta IV, Electron, Falcon.
Sometimes the launcher is "named" for a specific configuration of a class, e.g. "Delta IV Medium+ (4,2)", "Chang ...
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Launch vehicle trajectory tool for ascent phase to orbit using PYTHON
Currently, I am developing a trajectory optimization tool for launch vehicle from lift-off to orbit using python for my project. Since I'm new to optimization problem, I am finding it hard to ...
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1answer
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If there “won't be” rockets to launch individual cubesats, then why did JAXA build exactly that? (SS-520-xx)
The question Why isn't there a rocket to launch a single cubesat? has several good answers that explain why there isn't and/or will not likely be one, based mostly on commercial viability, consistent ...
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Is the space shuttle the only launcher that jettisson tank without any engines in its staging process?
All launcher I know jettison stages composed of both tank and engines. I do understand that:
the jettison process is useful to get rid of dead weight
jettison engines allows the use of more suited ...
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1answer
332 views
Why arenāt rocket stages modular and interchangeable?
Being an avid player of Kerbal Space Program, it is intensely frustrating to return to the real world and have to remind myself that rocket stages canāt generally be swapped out between rockets (...
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Why was the Energiaās payload capacity to lunar orbit greater than its payload capacity to geosynchronous orbit?
The Energia rocket, developed in the 1970s and 1980s to launch the Soviet Buran space shuttle, had the second-highest payload capacity (100 tonnes to LEO) of any rocket ever flown (and the highest-...
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How often did launch vehicles have a “Stage 0”, and what does it mean exactly?
While trying to do some reading for the question Need help understanding staging shown in infographic of Titan launch of Hexagon satellites I ran across the Wikipedia article for Titan III.
This ...
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1answer
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Need help understanding staging shown in infographic of Titan launch of Hexagon satellites
The NPR News item I Spy, Via Spy Satellite: Melting Himalayan Glaciers discusses use of declassified historical satellite images that include glaciers, and link to the newly published and Open Access ...
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Why does the Falcon 9 launch heavier payload in LEO than Ariane V and the other way around for GTO?
Browsing a comparison of orbital launch systems on wikipedia, I notice that launcher capable of launching payload in GTO can launch in GTO approximately all the mass of the payload they can launch in ...
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GLOM of a launch vehicle
What do you mean by GLOM of a launch vehicle? When I googled about it, it says it is a type of mass but I am unclear about it.
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History of multiple-payload launches?
Another question asks why Spirit and Opportunity weren't launched together. My gut response was that multiple-payload launches were less common then than they are today, but I don't actually know if ...
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1answer
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How common are “parallel stages” in a launch vehicle?
I'm being told in this answer and in this comment that the fourth stage of the Farside rocketoon lies in the center of the four "cores" of the third stage.
See this answer for several pictures of ...
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461 views
Was there any period of time when other U.S. launchers were abandoned in favor of the Shuttle?
The comments to this recent question disagree on whether the U.S. briefly abandoned other launch systems in favor of the Space Shuttle.
The Shuttle was designed to be capable of bringing all U.S. ...
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Laser powered LEO launch system
Latest research on beam powered propulsion seem to focus on the microwave spectrum as it is easy to catch by the orbital vehicle. However I argue it could be way cheaper to use a solar powered laser ...
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1answer
102 views
What does the core stage of a launch vehicle mean?
I have seen the use of the term 'core stage' in the context of space launch vehicles. I am not able to clearly understand what it exactly means? I have learnt about launch vehicles having multiple ...
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Payload fairing separation- Event based or time based?
Refer the answer for this question How strong and "hot" is the wind on the payload after the fairing is deployed at ~110km?
It is clear that the fairings are separated when the free ...
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New Terran 1 rocket - launch costs for Cubesat
I was reading about the Terran 1 rocket and the fact that the founding company managed to secure the launch site at Cape Canaveral. Pretty amazing story on its own but then I looked at prices and they ...
