VTOVL

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Hyperion SSTO
Hyperion SSTO Launch Vehicle
Credit - © Mark Wade

The concept of a reusable single-stage-to-orbit Vertical Take-Off Vertical Landing (VTOVL) launch vehicle that would reenter and return to its launch site for turnaround and relaunch was first proposed by Philip Bono in the 1960's. The appealing simplicity of the concept has been offset by the technological risk in developing it. The problem with any single-stage-to-orbit concept is that if the empty weight of the final vehicle has been underestimated it will not be able to deliver any payload to orbit, or even reach orbit. Since weight growth of up to 20% is not unknown in aerospace projects, this is a very real threat which has made both NASA and private investors reluctant to invest the billions of dollars it would take to develop a full-scale flight vehicle. Bono's vehicles proposed minimizing weight by using plug nozzle engines. Cooled by residual hydrogen fuel, these would act as a heat shield for re-entry. More conservatively the recent DC-X designs used a conventional forward heat shield for reentry. The concept was not selected by NASA for the X-33 (an even more risky lifting body design was chosen). This was perhaps the last chance for the concept. The more conservative Kistler recoverable reusable ballistic launch vehicle uses two stages, thereby minimizing the risk.

	Aerospatiale VTVL	Aerospatiale vertical takeoff, vertical landing single stage to orbit study....more.

	Ares ICBM	The Ares single-stage, liquid-propellant ICBM was the objective of propulsion studies at both Aerojet and Rocketdyne....more.

	ATV	George Detko of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center produced designs for SSTO vehicles as early as 1960. The expendable vehicle had a gross listoff mass of only...more.

	Beta	In 1969 rocket pioneer Dietrich Koelle was working at MBB (Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm). There he sketched out a reusable VTOVL design called BETA using Bono's SASSTO...more.

	Beta II	Beta II was Dietrich Koelle's nominal 350 tonne lift-off mass SSTO design for launch of a 10 tonne European spaceplane....more.

	Beta III	In 1969 Dietrich Koelle proposed his BETA III design. This was to deliver 20 tonnes to orbit with a launch mass of 600 tonnes. In 1996 and 1998 he updated the design...more.

	Beta IV	Beta II was Dietrich Koelle's largest SSTO concept, with a nominal 2000 tonne lift-off mass SSTO design and 100 tonne payload....more.

	Boeing SPS SSTO	In 1977 Boeing produced a vehicle design for a 227 tonne payload vertical takeoff launch vehicle to be used to launch components for the huge Satellite Solar Power...more.

	DC-X	The DC-X was an experimental vehicle, 1/3 the size of a planned DC-Y vertical-takeoff/vertical-landing, single stage to orbit prototype. It was not designed as...more.

	DC-X2	Proposed intermediate 1/2 scale test vehicle between DC-X and DC-Y orbital version. No government agency was willing to fund the $450 million development cost --...more.

	DC-Y	The ultimate goal of the Delta Clipper program, a prototype reusable single-stage to orbit, vertical takeoff/vertical landing space truck. The DC-I Delta Clipper...more.

	Gommersall	Edward Gomersall of NASA's Ames Research Center produced a conservative design for an SSTO in 1970. His vehicle was based on realistic structural technology and used a derivative of the J-2S engine....more.

	Ithacus	An adaptation of Phillip Bono's enormous ROMBUS plug-nozzle semi-single-stage-orbit launch vehicle as a 1,200 soldier intercontinental troop transport!! The recoverable...more.

	Kankoh Maru	Kawasaki design for single stage to orbit reusable booster. Would carry 50 passengers to orbiting hotels or fast intercontinental flights....more.

	Millenium Express	General Dynamics Space Systems Division proposal for the 1990 SDIO competition was a VTOL SSTO named Millennium Express. The final vehicle was a 15 degree cone...more.

	MLLV	Boeing study, 1969, for Saturn follow-on. Plug nozzle, single-stage-to-orbit launch vehicle could itself put 1 million pounds payload into orbit. By addition of...more.

	New Shepard	...more.

	Nexus	Early 1960's recoverable launch vehicle proposed by Krafft Ehricke at General Dynamics. Perhaps the largest conventionally-powered launch vehicle ever conceived,...more.

	North American Air Augmented VTOVL	North American Aviation’s air-augmented vertical takeoff & landing single-stage-to-orbit RLV from 1963 would have used external burning ramjets which, according...more.

	OOST	Bono's earliest design for an expendable single-stage-to-orbit LH2/Lox booster. The baseline version used conventional engines....more.

	Pegasus VTOVL	Bono design for semi-single-stage-to-orbit ballistic VTOVL launch vehicle. Drop tanks were shed on the way to orbit. Pegasus could deliver either a Satun V-size...more.

	Phoenix C	The larger 180 tonne Phoenix design of the 1980's was envisioned in two versions -- the Phoenix C (Cargo, unmanned) and Phoenix E (Excursion -- for use as a lunar...more.

	Phoenix L	The small Phoenix design of the 1980's was envisioned in two versions -- the Phoenix L (Light, cargo only) and Phoenix LP (Light-Prime, crewed). The earlier versions...more.

	Phoenix M	Intermediate versions of the Phoenix concept were sketched out in the mid-1980's. These more conservative vehicles used individual altitude-compensating bell nozzles...more.

	Rombus	Bono original design for ballistic single-stage-to-orbit (not quite - it dropped liquid hydrogen tanks on the way up) heavy lift launch vehicle. The recoverable...more.

	Roton	The Roton was a fully reusable, single-stage-to-orbit, vertical take-off and landing piloted space vehicle designed to transport two crew members and 3200 kg of...more.

	SASSTO	Bono proposal for first step toward VTOVL SSTO vehicle - heavily modified Saturn IVB with plug nozzle engine....more.

	SSOAR	P Seigler founded a company in 1976 to promote his design for a VTOVL SSTO vehicle using a lox/hydrogen aerospike engine....more.

	SSX	The X-Rocket was a VTOVL SSTO design by Maxwell Hunter II at Lockheed in the late 1980's. The 227 tonne vehicle was powered by clustered RL10 engines. Internal...more.

	Venturestar	Production reusable single-stage-to-orbit launch vehicle using technology developed in X-33 testbed....more.

	VKS	RKK Energia's proposed solution to the Soviet government's MVKS requirement for a single-stage-to-orbit reusable aerospaceplane system was this 700-metric-ton,...more.

	VTOHL 45t	Vertical Takeoff Horizontal Landing (winged)....more.

	VTOHL 9t	Vertical Takeoff Horizontal Landing (winged)....more.

	VTOVL	Vertical Takeoff Vertical Landing....more.

	X-30	Air-breathing scramjet single stage to orbit. Second attempt after study of similar proposal in early 1960's. Cancelled due to cost, technical challenges....more.

	Yakovlev MVKS	In reaction to US X-30 project, government decrees of 27 January and 19 July 1986 ordered development of a Soviet equivalent. The Ministry of Defence issued technical...more.