Documents / Report
This Defense Intelligence Reference Document, prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency and dated 8 March 2010, was produced under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications (AAWSA) Program. It gives a historical and technical review of how to reach space and return. It covers hypersonic gliders, air-breathing and rocket propulsion, thermodynamics and materials, and launch options. It argues that reliable, schedulable access to low Earth orbit is mainly a hardware and propulsion problem rather than a technology one.
“Edwards Air Force Base”1 page
UNCLASSIFIED//F81il 8FFI1il.t.k Wfili &,.kY As per the U.S. Air Force requirements we were working with, these TAV were piloted and therefore had retractable crew stations that could provide forward visibility when permitted by thermal conditions. The launch system (see Figure 36) was adopted from the U.S. Air Force Thor IRBM launch system and from observations when the author was at Baikanour, Kazakhstan. The vehicles were in dry horizontal storage and were serviced and loaded horizontally. The hanger/shelter was rolled back for erection to vertical position and then fueled. The launch sequence was patterned after the Baikanour Soyuz launch, which is 12 hours. The Thor IRBM launch sequence (LOX/RP-1) was Figure 36. Simple Horizontal Integration and Vertical Launch Provides Rapid Launch Capability 15 to 18 minutes. As in Baikanour, the payloads are not to be loaded into the vehicle and then remain there for weeks before checking out. What is loaded into the vehicle are checked-out payloads that need only to be attached to the carrying hardware. At Baikanour there were about seven pre-checked out Soyuz and Progress payloads in plastic wrap inerted with argon. The goal was to be able to launch a Soyuz launcher within 7 to 12 hours in the event of an orbital emergency. The Soyuz launchers were in dry storage and brought in on a railcar. With the Russian fully automatic checkout and fueling approach, this would certainly be possible. Figure 37 shows an artist's illustration of a TAV launch and recovery operational base. The boosters are a concept from Joe Thurgau of MDC Huntington Beach "Toss-Back" boosters that, after separation, rotate 180 degrees and fire their rocket motors to "toss back" to the launch site. An infrared guidance system steers the booster to a recover lake for a powered vertical landing (upper righthand portion of the illustration). The booster rocket engines are nongimbaled, sealed with the heat shield base. Either the 1-½ stage or the 2-stage systems could be launched. It would have even been possible to launch Figure 37. A Vertical Launch Complex Provides Vertical Toss Back Booster Recovery and Horizontal Landing Facilities for the Hypersonic Gliders a booster by itself to rapidly transport it to another launch site (lower center portion of the illustration). Runways are provided for returning hypersonic gliders (upper center portion of the illustration), as well as for service and supply aircraft. Housing, maintenance facilities, and other buildings are on adjacent property. It certainly would be possible to launch this system from Vandenberg Air Force Base or Cape Canaveral, 34 UNCLASSIFIED/ ,<EiOA: QFFI@Itllt ~:!E! enc I
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Report, from the dia collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 56 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.