CALLISTO reusable vehicle system design

Abstract

JAXA, CNES, and DLR have jointly conducted concept design and project definition activities for a vertical-take off, vertical landing, experimental vehicle called CALLISTO (Cooperative Action Leading to Launcher Innovation for Stage Toss-back Operations), which objectives are to master key technologies to recover and reuse future operational reusable first stages. The vehicle has a diameter of 1.1m, it is roughly 13m high, with a mass at lift-off of roughly 3.5 tons. Main propulsion is based on LOx/LH2 RSR2 engine (enhanced version of RSR engine of JAXA RV-X experiment) and roll control system uses H2O2. This paper presents a further overview of the CALLISTO vehicle system & mission design. First, mission design is addressed, with emphasis on flight profiles and flight sequence definition. Specific technical challenges associated to each flight phase are detailed, in particular with respect to their impact on vehicle design requirements. Then vehicle design is presented, going through the main system level functional architectures. Main features are connected to mission design such as to highlight the vehicle design drivers. Finally insight into test plan is provided, which will contribute to demonstration flights de-risking logic.