Management and Operations Commons^™

Determining The Economic Plausibility Of Dual Manifesting Reusable Launch Vehicles And Reusable Orbital Transfer Vehicles For The Replenishment Of Military Satellites, Crystal L. Evans

Theses and Dissertations

Currently, the Air Force launches military satellites on expendable launch vehicles to low earth orbit (LEO), and with the use of a chemical upper stage or an apogee kick motor, moves the satellite to a higher orbit. This launch procedure is extremely costly because it requires additional launch preparations, technology considerations, equipment, and fuel. Also, the additional mass of the chemical upper stage causes a larger, and thus more expensive, launch vehicle to be required. An economical alternative is to utilize reusable launch vehicles (RLVs) and reusable orbital launch vehicles (ROTVs). This concept could possibly achieve even greater savings if …