Preliminary Design and Cost Analysis of Liquid Fly Back Boosters Using Existing Engines

Abstract

This report presents the results of investigations on the LEO mission capability of four different Reusable Liquid Fly Back Boosters (LFBB), primarily designed to deliver 11 tons payload to GTO. The mating expendable stage is the Ariane5 ECB with Cryogenic Upper Stage for GTO mission and a hypothetical Ariane 4 Advanced Derivatives of Upper Stage (H25) for LEO mission. To verify the dual mission capability including GTO and LEO, the ascent and descent trajectories for GTO as well as LEO mission are simulated and analyzed. The paper includes Life Cycle Cost (LCC) and Cost per Flight (CpF) comparison among the four LFBBs based on a fixed operation scenario including 450 mission flights including 300 GTO and 150 LEO missions over a 30 year period. Statistical analysis on the total program cost are carried out by putting two key cost driving factors, including boosters' life flight times, and aging factor on refurbishment and spare cost, as variables. The cost saving effect of the joint operation using engines matured by booster flight for the expendable core stage is reviewed.