SINGLE-STAGE-TO-ORIBIT - A STEP CLOSER

Over the past several years there has been a significant effort within the United States to assess options to replace the Space Shuttle some time after the turn of the century. In order to provide a range of te chnology options, a wide variety of vehicle types and propulsion syste ms have been examined. These vehicle concepts which are representative of the classes of concepts that could be proposed for any future vehi cle development is being used in the initial phase of the access to sp ace activity to identify requirements for the technology maturation ef fort and to assess approaches to achieve the required low operations c ost. This paper provides the results of recent systems analyses and de scribes the ongoing technology maturation and demonstration program su pporting the Reusable Launch Vehicle Program.