A particular focus of the international interest in exploration missions is the identification and the design of a more flexible and possibly reusable manned space vehicle, able to re-enter from space missions and safely land on earth. A concept of a high lift-over-drag vehicle for earth re-entry is the PHOEBUS (Plane-shaped Hypersonic Orbital Re-Entry BUS) of the OHB Team. This vehicle allows performing long duration re-entry trajectories with large down- and crossrange and good maneuverability by proper utilization of the lift forces. Compared to capsules with ballistic re-entry trajectory the g-loads can be reduced from 8g by more than a quarter, which is especially an advantage for ill- or poor conditioned crews due to long space residence. This paper shows the innovative re-entry strategies of such a vehicle as well as the design and performance of such a High Lift-over-Drag vehicle compared to conventional re-entry vehicles.
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