SMALL, REUSABLE SINGLE-STAGE-TO-ORBIT ROCKETSHIP

Kistler Aerospace believes the key to reusable vehicle success is to s tart with a small, simple, lightweight, minimum payload vehicle, that utilizes an innovative design and employs unique launch and landing sy stems to optimize rocketship performance, then to expand to larger con figurations. This paper focuses on the K-1 vehicle and the innovation proposed. The innovation includes lifting the vehicle to a high altitu de with a Launch Assist Platform (LAP) to launch and the potential eli mination of the landing gear weight. The K-1 will place a one-ton usef ul payload into low earth orbit and evolves to larger reusable rockets hips with as much as ten times the capability. The Kistler rocketships have a unique design that employs launch and landing enhancement conc epts, which increase performance enough to make reusable rocketships a near-term reality. Waiter Kistler has proposed a new series of ideas for the development of reusable vehicle technology and a commercial bu siness capable of addressing the existing and emerging transportation markets at a reduced cost. The K-1 configuration uses innovative conce pts to create a reusable space launch vehicle and will launch in 1997 from New Mexico, U.S.A.