THE DEVELOPMENT STATUS OF THE EPSILON LAUNCH VEHICLE

摘要

The Epsilon launch vehicle has two main objectives. One is to evolve the highly efficient launch vehicle using the solid rocket system technologies that we have obtained for more than fifty years. The other is to meet the needs of the small satellites whose market will grow in the near future definitely. The needs and the demands of the small satellites have been flowdowned to the requirements of the Epsilon launch vehicle. As a next generation launch system, the Epsilon launch vehicle has several special features. The level of user friendliness is increased including more accurate orbit insertion precision, lower acoustic environment and lower separation shock level. It is optimized from the point of view of both cost and performance. This paper describes the system design of the Epsilon launch vehicle.