RLV-Return Mode “In-Air-Capturing” and Definition of its Development Roadmap

Kurzfassung

An innovative approach for the return of reusable space transportation vehicles has been proposed: The winged stages are to be caught in the air and towed by subsonic airplanes back to their launch site without any necessity of an own propulsion system. This patented procedure is called in-air-capturing. The project FALCon (Formation flight for in-Air Launcher 1st stage Capturing demonstration) funded by EC in Horizon 2020 is progressing this advanced technology. A dedicated session at the EUCASS 2022 is organized with a total of 6 technical presentations. This paper serves as an introduction into the topic, summarizes system aspects of the launcher performance improvement and explains the structure of the FALCon-project. Main part of the paper is the definition of the next steps for the technical development roadmap. This activity has been organized in cooperation with the European stakeholders from industry, agencies and research organizations. The outcome and results of two dedicated workshops and additional splinter meetings are summarized. The iterated technology development roadmaps considering the recommendations from the splinter meetings are presented.