INVESTIGATION OF THE ASCENT FLIGHT DYNAMICS OF THE SPACELINER CONCEPT AS A NON-SYMMETRIC LAUNCHER CONFIGURATION

Determining the flight dynamic characteristics of a space transportation vehicle in its preliminary design phase is a complex task since a large variety of vehicle parameters need to be estimated. For the SpaceLiner vehicle, a concept of a hypersonic suborbital space plane, such an analysis has now been established. In this study a 6 DOF trajectory simulation has been developed to assess the general feasibility of fulfilling the mission requirements during nominal and off-nominal flight conditions.