<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Multiple private companies are building suborbital reusable launch vehicles possessing vastly different designs. Many of these companies originally focused on space tourism; however, revolutionary applications for scientific and engineering research as well as technology demonstrations and instrument development are emerging. The dramatic reduction in cost over traditional launch systems as well as a guaranteed (and rapid) safe payload return enable many new launch vehicle applications. These new capabilities will essentially move the laboratory environment up to the edge of space. To make use of these novel launch vehicles, the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory has established a Commercial Suborbital Program with a core system (JANUS) to support and enable many future suborbital missions. This program has already conducted six suborbital flight missions to establish vehicle interfaces and analyze the suitability and limits of each flight environment. Additionally, this program has also been selected by the NASA Flight Opportunities Program for five additional operational suborbital missions. Here we present the results of our completed missions as well as descriptions of future selected missions scheduled for 2021–2023.</p>
</abstract>

Multiple private companies are building suborbital reusable launch vehicles possessing vastly different designs. Many of these companies originally focused on space tourism; however, revolutionary applications for scientific and engineering research as well as technology demonstrations and instrument development are emerging. The dramatic reduction in cost over traditional launch systems as well as a guaranteed (and rapid) safe payload return enable many new launch vehicle applications. These new capabilities will essentially move the laboratory environment up to the edge of space. To make use of these novel launch vehicles, the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory has established a Commercial Suborbital Program with a core system (JANUS) to support and enable many future suborbital missions. This program has already conducted six suborbital flight missions to establish vehicle interfaces and analyze the suitability and limits of each flight environment. Additionally, this program has also been selected by the NASA Flight Opportunities Program for five additional operational suborbital missions. Here we present the results of our completed missions as well as descriptions of future selected missions scheduled for 2021–2023.

APL JANUS System Progress on Commercial Suborbital Launch Vehicles: Moving the Laboratory Environment to Near Space

Gravitational and Space Research

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Multiple private companies are building suborbital reusable launch vehicles possessing vastly different designs. Many of these companies originally focused on...

APL JANUS System Progress on Commercial Suborbital Launch Vehicles: Moving the Laboratory Environment to Near Space

Article Category: Research Note

Published Online: Jan 29, 2021

Page range: 30 - 49

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/gsr-2021-0003

Keywords
Commercial Suborbital, JANUS, NASA Flight Opportunities, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, Masten Space Systems

© 2021 H. Todd Smith et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

APL JANUS System Progress on Commercial Suborbital Launch Vehicles: Moving the Laboratory Environment to Near Space

Article Category: Research Note

Published Online: Jan 29, 2021

Page range: 30 - 49

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/gsr-2021-0003

KeywordsCommercial Suborbital, JANUS, NASA Flight Opportunities, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, Masten Space Systems

© 2021 H. Todd Smith et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Commercial Suborbital, JANUS, NASA Flight Opportunities, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, Masten Space Systems