Designing for a new era of launch vehicle operational efficiency

It is pointed out that early recognition of operational requirements and assessment of their effects provides the best chance of designing an economically viable future space transportation system (FSTS). Operational factors which may influence configuration design include fleet size, operation mode, refurbishment, and the resource requirements. FTST has a simplified operational role compared to the Space Shuttle, which, in addition to transportation, must perform experiments, support payloads, and stay long on orbit. In the future a space station will perform many of these tasks. The FSTS comprises a two-stage fully reusable launch vehicle designed to carry 150,000 lb to a space station, off-load, and return. It would always be launched fully loaded, and its cargo would be processed and redistributed at the space station. Attention is given to ground servicing, flight operations, rendezvous-compatible orbits, launch windows, standard trajectories, entry windows, operational costs, the mission model, and resource requirements.