The Value of Large, Prelaunch Cross Range in Aircraft-Type Orbital Launchers

摘要

Many of the space missions postulated for the next decade require execution of orbital rendezvous. Rendezvous vehicles will be needed to perform space rescue, to ferry materials for space platform construction, to supply and service friendly orbiters, and to inspect, capture or destroy hostile satellites. All these missions require that a relatively large payload be delivered into a specified orbit pre-determined by another vehicle - the target. It is the purpose of this paper to show that for maximum payload the rendezvous task can best be performed by staging the interceptor from a mobile, aircraft-type launcher. In particular, this report demonstrates that only two mobile launchers, configured for a cruise radius of 2700 nm, can provide rendezvous capability against any pass of any near-earth satellite orbit. (Author)