Reusable Spacecraft

The main benefit of a reusable vehicle is of course its reusability, a quality which theoretically should reduce the cost of each launch. The purpose behind building a reusable vehicle was precisely to lower the costs for payload deliveries, and also to contribute to the commercial launch systems. Reusable space craft would be profitable if they would perform regular and multiple trips to LEO. A reusable vehicle such as the space shuttle has the advantage of being able to carry a larger crew. Another benefit of a reusable vehicle is the flight experience provided for future research and improvement of space flight both in terms of practicality and safety. Commercially speaking, a reusable vehicle would be a great contributor to business development in LEO, yet another benefit of such a vehicle. One important advantage that the space shuttle presented was the ability to service satellites in LEO. Let us not forget that without the space shuttle, the Hubble Space Telescope would have been space junk right after its launch. With the space shuttle being the most sophisticated space craft ever built, having a fleet of reusable vehicles assures a leadership position in the field of space exploration. No other nation than the US has managed to build a successful reusable vehicle yet. While the Soviet Union failed with Buran, India promises to build such a vehicle by 2030, but if we look at the long and complicated history of reusable vehicles in the US and how many had to fail to have a successful space shuttle, such a deadline could remain simply a dream. Finally, it is not the reusable machines that are not profitable at the moment, but rather it is the mission, or what they are used for that makes them undesirable financially. It is the mission of these vehicles, together with their turn-around capability that needs some improvement. A larger market would require more trips which in turn would reduce the costs of each launch. These are indeed wonderful and complex machines, and they require a larger market in order to become profitable and do the job at their real capability.

I do not believe that at least at the moment, any of the benefits of a reusable spacecraft outweighs the current costs of such a vehicle, simply because with our limited endeavors into space, the expandable vehicle can do as good a job as the reusable one and at lower costs. However, in the future, if our activity in LEO increases and there will be a need for lots of launches per month, it makes sense to have reusable vehicles with quite a fast turn-around and for which maintenance would not require such a long amount of time as for STS. But for now I am in favor of using expandable vehicles during this decade and probably the one to come, mainly because they seem more reliable, and although the reusable spacecraft may be lower cost in the long run, for the time being using the expandable ones would be more cost-effective. An excellent reusable vehicle with an outstanding performance and profitable financially is yet to be designed, and while engineers and designers work on this, it is best to rely on expendable launch vehicles.