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The Reusable Booster System (RBS) was a United States Air Force research program, circa 2010 to 2012, to develop a new prototype vertical-takeoff, horizontal-landing (VTHL) [1] reusable booster and a new prototype expendable second stage to replace the existing Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELV) after 2025. [2] The program was ...
The Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) was the first solid-propellant rocket to be used for primary propulsion on a vehicle used for human spaceflight. [1] A pair of them provided 85% of the Space Shuttle 's thrust at liftoff and for the first two minutes of ascent.
The historic Space Shuttle reused its Solid Rocket Boosters, its RS-25 engines and the Space Shuttle orbiter that acted as an orbital insertion stage, but it did not reuse the External Tank that fed the RS-25 engines. This is an example of a reusable launch system which reuses specific components of rockets.
The Space Shuttle, composed of an orbiter launched with two reusable solid rocket boosters and a disposable external fuel tank, carried up to eight astronauts and up to 50,000 lb (23,000 kg) of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO).
Beginning in 1981, the space shuttle began to be used for space travel. However, by the mid-1980s the concept of flying that many shuttle missions proved unrealistic and scheduled launch expectations were reduced 50%. [14] Following the Challenger accident in 1986, missions were halted pending safety review. This hiatus became lengthy and ...
The 5-segment SRB, which would have required little change to the current shuttle infrastructure, would have allowed the space shuttle to carry an additional 20,000 lb (9,100 kg) of payload in a 51.6°-inclination orbit, eliminate the dangerous "Return-to-Launch Site" (RTLS) and "Trans-Oceanic Abort" (TAL) modes, and, by using a so-called "dog ...
A diagram of the Shuttle-Derived Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle, Block I configuration. The HLV was proposed to be a 4,600,000 pounds (2,100,000 kg) vehicle at liftoff with two 4-segment Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters weighing about 2,600,000 pounds (1,200,000 kg) providing a total thrust of 5,900,000 pounds-force (26 MN) at sea level and the Space Shuttle External Tank weighing about ...
The Space Shuttle program, however, faced criticism that it failed to reduce the cost of access to space and had safety concerns following the Challenger and Columbia disasters. [ 7 ] [ 8 ] The SpaceX Dragon 1 first flew in 2010, and became the first commercially built and operated spacecraft to be recovered from orbit.