Outlook on the New Generation of European Reusable Launchers

Kurzfassung

The technical investigations described in this paper evaluate the two seemingly antipodal design approaches of either establishing a launcher family consisting of modular building blocks or choosing a full-size reusable launcher stage which serves all missions with adaptations limited to the upper- and kick-stage selection. The paper summarizes major results of the preliminary technical design process iteratively performed at DLR-SART. The overall shape and aerodynamic configuration, the propulsion, the architectures of the stages are described and different technical solutions are compared. Payload performance is optimized for the different concepts in the GTO-mission, manned flight to ISS and to SSO. The winged configurations’ controllability in hypersonic reentry and subsequent subsonic flight is assessed.