SLVR: A NASA Strategy for Leveraging Emerging Launch Vehicles for Routine, Small Payload Missions
Abstract
Orbital flight opportunities for small payloads have always been few and far between, but on February 1, 2002, the situation got worse. In the wake of the loss of the Columbia during STS-107, changing NASA missions and priorities led to the discontinuation of Get-Away Special and Hitchhiker, leaving expendable launch vehicles (ELVs) as the only option for small payload access-to-space. Attempts to establish routine opportunities aboard ELVs, however, have been unsuccessful, due to a suite of technical and management issues. The prospects for breaking out of this paradigm appear promising as a result of NASA’s partnership with DARPA and the USAF in pursuit of low-cost, responsive small ELVs under the Falcon Program. Through this partnership, several new small ELVs are planned that can be used as the basis for a sustained small payload program. Wallops Flight Facility is taking the steps, on behalf of NASA, to leverage these capabilities and develop the remaining building blocks of a systemic solution, including payload carriers, low-cost launch operations, and mission operations, through the Small Launch Vehicles Research Project (SLVR). With the success of these efforts, routine opportunities for small science, technology, and educational satellites, may finally be on the horizon.
SLVR: A NASA Strategy for Leveraging Emerging Launch Vehicles for Routine, Small Payload Missions
Orbital flight opportunities for small payloads have always been few and far between, but on February 1, 2002, the situation got worse. In the wake of the loss of the Columbia during STS-107, changing NASA missions and priorities led to the discontinuation of Get-Away Special and Hitchhiker, leaving expendable launch vehicles (ELVs) as the only option for small payload access-to-space. Attempts to establish routine opportunities aboard ELVs, however, have been unsuccessful, due to a suite of technical and management issues. The prospects for breaking out of this paradigm appear promising as a result of NASA’s partnership with DARPA and the USAF in pursuit of low-cost, responsive small ELVs under the Falcon Program. Through this partnership, several new small ELVs are planned that can be used as the basis for a sustained small payload program. Wallops Flight Facility is taking the steps, on behalf of NASA, to leverage these capabilities and develop the remaining building blocks of a systemic solution, including payload carriers, low-cost launch operations, and mission operations, through the Small Launch Vehicles Research Project (SLVR). With the success of these efforts, routine opportunities for small science, technology, and educational satellites, may finally be on the horizon.
