All articles tagged with #reusable upper stage
The European Space Agency awarded Italian company Avio a €40 million contract to develop a reusable rocket upper stage demonstrator over the next 24 months, focusing on system requirements and preliminary design, leveraging advancements in liquid propulsion and reentry technologies.
United Launch Alliance is exploring the concept of keeping the upper stages of its Vulcan Centaur rockets in space to perform additional tasks such as satellite maneuvering and countering threats. The company's CEO, Tory Bruno, envisions a fleet of reusable upper stages in orbit, potentially opening up new missions for the company. ULA is also working on increasing its launch cadence and expanding its infrastructure to support future missions, while facing delays with the payload for its upcoming rocket launch.
Stoke Space successfully flew its Hopper2 prototype, a reusable upper stage, in a brief test flight in Moses Lake, Washington. The vehicle, powered by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, reached an altitude of about nine meters before safely landing. Stoke Space considers this flight a significant milestone in their efforts to develop a fully reusable launch vehicle and has obtained valuable data to evolve the vehicle design. The company plans to work on a reusable first stage informed by the lessons learned from the upper stage, with a goal of developing a full-fledged orbital vehicle by 2025.