Tim Furniss/LONDON
Kelly Space and Technology of San Bernardino, California, has been issued a US patent for its towed-launch technique to be used by the company's Eclipse re-usable spaceplane satellite launch system.
The plan is to use a Boeing 747 to tow the Eclipse spaceplane to a launch altitude of 45,000ft (13,700m), from where the craft's engine will be ignited and the tow line released. The Eclipse will then climb to its payload deployment altitude of 400,000ft.
Following deployment, the upper stages on the satellite will fire to place the payload into its prescribed orbit. The Eclipse will then glide back to land on the Earth.
The US company was awarded an $89 million contract from Motorola in 1996 to launch at least 20 Iridium global mobile-communications satellites into orbit as early as 1999. These will be used to replenish the operational system's 66 spacecraft constellation.
An agreement with Universal Space Lines (USL) of Newport Beach, California, which will develop and operate the Eclipse flight-operations control centre has been signed by Kelly. USL is run by the former Apollo astronaut Pete Conrad, who was the launch director for the McDonnell Douglas DC-X programme.
Kelly is conducting ground and flight tests of the Eclipse tow-launch approach using US Air Force Convair QF-106s and Lockheed C-141s.
Source: Flight International
