Airbus sets date for its reusable launcher
Print Edition
EUROPEAN aircraft and aerospace giant Airbus has unveiled plans for a reusable space rocket launcher that should be ready in 2025, one that will be radically different from the rival American firm Space X’s concept.
The stakes are high as Airbus must overcome technical and financial challenges, while Space X, owned by Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal, is already experimenting with its model.
Since 2010, engineers have been secretly working at an Airbus warehouse at Les Mureaux, just outside Paris, looking for ways to reuse space rocket launchers.
They have a difficult task ahead because they must ensure that reuse ends up costing less than sticking to classic models. Now it appears their project might end up working.
Airbus has baptized the two phases of its reusable launcher concept Adeline and Space Tugs.
“The main stage launches and operates the rocket in the first phase of its journey. The later stage comes into action in the second part,” said Francois Auque, director at Airbus Defence and Space.
Adeline stands for ADvanced Expendable Launcher with INnovative engine Economy.
“In order to reuse the main stage, we bring back the most expensive parts and try to make them in a way that they become much cheaper to reuse them than to make new ones,” Auques said.
The idea is to recover the propulsion bay and the engine, which account for 80 percent of the launcher’s total value, by protecting them with a heat shield as they make their way back to Earth.
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