Space X unveils plans for reusable rocket

By Anne K Walters Sep 29, 2011, 19:20 GMT

Washington - Commercial aerospace firm Space X announced plans Thursday to develop the world's first completely resuable rocket, which chief executive Elon Musk said could revolutionize space travel.

Reusable spacecraft such as the US space shuttle or Russian Soyuz capsules have been in service for decades, but the rockets that launch the vessels into orbit are used just once.

Space X is working to bring its existing designs for the spacecraft 'in line with reality' for the reusable rocket, Musk said.

Much like conventional rockets, the new rocket's first and second phases would separate after firing, but with a ground-breaking difference: each empty rocket stage would fly itself back to Earth, landing accurately at the launch pad, simulations by Space X showed.

Musk told reporters at the National Press Club in Washington that such a system based on Space X's existing Falcon 9 rockets would reduce launch costs by '100-fold' and make possible longer distance missions, such as to Mars.

'The pivotal breakthrough that is necessary ... to make life multiplanetary is a fully and rapidly reusable orbit-class rocket,' Musk said.

'It's a very tough engineering problem. I wasn't sure it could be solved, and then just relatively recently, in the last 12 months or so, I came to the conclusion that it can be solved, and Space X is going to try to do it.'

He pointed to the challenges of making the rocket itself more complex to steer it back to Earth and the extra weight added by new components as possible challenges. Space X's current plans appear to work in simulations, but the company must now get down to the hard work of making it reality, Musk said.

The reusable rocket would be developed in parallel to the Space X's ISS-bound Dragon spacecraft. The capsule has already completed an orbital test flight and will likely make its first unmanned flight to the ISS early next year, Musk said.

Space X is among companies developing commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station, as NASA shifts its focus after the end of the shuttle programme.

Until the new commercial systems come online, NASA is reliant on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to carry astronauts aloft.

NASA retired its 30-year-old shuttle fleet earlier this year and is turning its focus to developing its own heavy-lift rocket and capsule for long-distance trips to asteroids and eventually Mars.

Musk stressed that Russian spacecraft will likely only be able to carry on for a few more years before becoming obsolete. The US faces the greatest future competition from China, he said.

Earlier Thursday, China launched its first module for a planned small space laboratory into orbit, marking a key stage toward its goal of assembling a permanent space station in the next decade.

An animation of Space X's rocket concept can be seen online at http://www.spacex.com/npc-luncheon-elon-musk.php.