Oklahoma-based suborbital vehicle developer TGV-Rockets has been funded by a $4.8 million US Department of Defense “improved suborbital operations” contract for space systems that support intelligence gathering.
TGV-Rockets is using the funds to develop its fully reusable Modular Incremental High Energy Launch Experiment, or Michelle-B, vehicle.
In June the Michelle-B went through a system design review with the DoD, which Bahn says “went well”.
The 11.4m (37.4ft)-high, 2.4m-wide rocket would take off vertically on a suborbital ballistic trajectory from a mobile launch vehicle, carrying 1t and reaching 100km (62 miles) in 200s.
The rocket would land vertically, using a deployable aerodynamic flexible mesh decelerator to help slow its descent. It would slow itself using its engines in the final stages of the descent and land with stowable landing gear.
Source: Flight International
