Overview of European RLV Demonstrator Vehicles

The European Future Launcher Preparatory Program shall prepare Europe for a development decision for a Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) as a Next Generation Launcher in the timeframe of 2010. In-flight experimentation is a key element in the program plan to control technical risk and development cost of an operational RLV. This paper gives an overview of an in-flight experimentation logic based on four different experimental vehicles. Phoenix 1, a low-speed vehicle demonstrating the automatic horizontal landing of an RLV configuration on a runway; Pre-X, a reentry vehicle for the qualification of TPS material and hypersonic aerothermodynamics; Phoenix 2, a rocketpropelled vehicle to perform multiple test flights from subsonic to high supersonic speeds; ARES-H, a winged reentry vehicle demonstrating an orbital entry with a representative RLV configuration from orbit down to the subsonic regime. The paper summarizes the in-flight experimentation needs which are derived from the RLV system and technology requirements, and presents an in-flight demonstration plan, including the demonstration objectives and the mission requirements for the four RLV demonstrator vehicles.