At the International Astronautical Congress in Paris this week,
ArianeGroup revealed a proposal
for a Smart Upper Stage for Innovative Exploration, or "Susie"
vehicle. Susie is an entirely reusable rocket upper stage project that
replaces the payload fairing on a launch vehicle like their Ariane 64 rocket
and presumably its successors. Susie adds additional power to the upper
stage of the launch vehicle — engines and fuel — and will be capable of
carrying out many different types of missions before returning to land on
Earth. Further, they specifically mention crewed and uncrewed missions. (H/T Rocket Report)
Ariane 64 topped with a Susie upper stage. Screen capture from the animated video at that link, above.
Back in 2019, ArianeGroup announced a new reusable booster called Themis and largely copied from the Falcon 9 (Ariane rendered video here). I find no record of it having been test flown, but three years isn't much in rocket development. Nevertheless, it raises the possibility of totally reusable systems - or two out of three stages being reusable.
Missions made possible by Susie include towing, inspecting and upgrading satellites and other payloads, and supplying fuel, food, and equipment to space stations. It will also be able to carry out crew changeovers and facilitate human in-orbit activities. There was no estimate of the costs, which likely would be in the billions of euros over many years if ArianeGroup won such a contract.
You might recall that in February of this year, a group of European Astronauts issued a manifesto calling for a manned space program from the EU. Will that happen? Will the European Union survive long enough to do any of these things, from Themis to Susie? We can start a poll or gambling pool, but it's probably not worth the time.
You know, if a recoverable and reusable upper stage was economical and feasible, SpaceX would have already.... Well, for the Falcon 9 that is. Starship is definitely a reusable vehicle. We'll just have to wait and see how long it will be before Starship finally commercially flies
ReplyDeleteNow I can see launching a 2nd stage and leaving it in orbit as a tug, refueling it, using it to push larger payloads from low LEO to upper LEO or farther.
Be interesting to see what Arianne's upper stage will look like. A spaceplane? A Starship-like falling body?
It's rendered in a Vimeo video that's embedded at the very first link in this post. First visible about 15 seconds into the video, and then throughout it. While it reminds me of Starship without the forward-mounted "flings" it also reminds me of the Delta Clipper. The 2:15 minute video has a good 10 seconds at the start and 25 seconds at the end that are content-free.
DeleteIn that video, they show it landing much like Starship - falling horizontally but then suddenly shown vertically, engines on, and landing on legs on its tail.
Stupid browser/stupid eyes. Did not see the blue highlighted text. My bad.
DeleteSo now both Red China and the EU are copying SpaceX. Ha.
Maybe in 2030. Or 2035. Or . . .
ReplyDeleteWhen SLS flies? ;)
ReplyDeleteCan't remember it popping up here, but Elon Musk was on Jay Leno's garage. Takes place at Boca Chica this past September 21st.
ReplyDeleteHere 'ya go! https://youtu.be/goT5gW57Chc
ReplyDeleteToo little, too late, EU. You've been passed by.
ReplyDeleteThe EU can keep relevent by making laws and regulations that say only EU launchers can launch EU space cargo.
DeleteWait...
They've already done that. :)
The slow-walking of Ariane's launchers and the whole Ukrainian-crisis combined with Roscosmos also slow-walking has forced EU to use other people's launchers. Grudgingly. With much chagrin.
Yup - 'bout as smart as the Germans depending on Russia for their energy supplies to the detriment of everything else! Who's laughing now? The Chinese. SpaceX. Rocket Labs. You get the idea...
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