Initial Results of Nanosat Launch Vehicle Developmental Flight Testing

Interest continues to grow for responsive, cost-effective launch services that can deliver small payloads to low Earth orbit. One such system now under development to address the very low end of this market niche is the Nanosat Launch Vehicle (NLV). The NLV is a two- stage, expendable all-liquid propulsion launcher that is sized to manifest payloads of up to 10 kg. The industry/academic team that is developing the NLV has already begun flight testing of full-scale, low-fidelity development versions of key vehicle elements, including the first stage, interstage, simulated second stage and payload fairing. This paper reports on the results from these initial NLV flight tests, as well as plans for upcoming ones.