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In the SS2 rollout thread I mentioned that WhiteKnightTwo could also be used to launch satellites. Below are images presented by VG's small satellite launch general manager Adam Baker at the 60th International Astronautical Congress in Daejeon, Korea in October. (FlightGlobal blog link)
The first one is what most people expected - a rather conventional horizontally launched small payload booster, not unlike the Orbital Sciences Pegasus, for cubesats and mini-satellites up to 200kg or so.
Below, however, is something completely different: a winged fly-back re-usable booster with canards in front. This graphic is the Black Cab, a Rick "The Rocketeer" Newland concept presented at the 2009 UKSpace conference that would leverage Rutans folding wing tech to re-enter for landing and re-use. (bottom with link to his slideshow)
A mothership launches a daughtership that launches an insertion vehicle from an internal bay. A mothership launches a daughtership that launches an insertion vehicle from an internal bay. Hybrid for the daughtership? Sounds reasonable to me....
SlideShare link....
The first one is what most people expected - a rather conventional horizontally launched small payload booster, not unlike the Orbital Sciences Pegasus, for cubesats and mini-satellites up to 200kg or so.
Below, however, is something completely different: a winged fly-back re-usable booster with canards in front. This graphic is the Black Cab, a Rick "The Rocketeer" Newland concept presented at the 2009 UKSpace conference that would leverage Rutans folding wing tech to re-enter for landing and re-use. (bottom with link to his slideshow)
A mothership launches a daughtership that launches an insertion vehicle from an internal bay. A mothership launches a daughtership that launches an insertion vehicle from an internal bay. Hybrid for the daughtership? Sounds reasonable to me....
SlideShare link....