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I was just wondering if anyone is still pursuing maglev mag assisted launch. I know that was being given lots of consideration several years ago.
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I think the ESA is attempting it in their reusable launch vehicle project HOPPER. Unfortunately, I can't remember the link to it, but thier plan is to accelerate a rocketplane up to about Mach 2-ish over several miles of track in French Guiana after which the plane lights its engines and takes a second stage up to circa 10,000 mph. Then the rocketplane makes a controlled seaplane landing and the second stage takes the payload to orbit.
The full system is supposed to be operational by something like 2011, so don't hold your breath. Going by the world's space programs' recent record, it won't happen for a long time, if ever, but if you take the rocketplane and put it atop and Ariane V first stage stack it could be used as a manned to-orbit vehicle. Probably won't happen, but who knows?
A mind is like a parachute- it works best when open.
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I'm not holding my breathe on the ESA, especially when you take into account that one of the USSTRATCOM (formerly USSPACECOM) space lift programs my buddy manages (can't be more speciffic) has a bigger budget then the entire ESAs budget....
Still it's kewl that they are going a different direction, I was just wondering since I hadn't heard anything in a while. Circa 1999 I know they were playing with it alot at Lewis...I mean Glenn research center and at Los Alamos but it kinda dropped off the face of the earth. It seems like a really good way to significantly improve the preformance of existiting hardware. Build a 15 mile launch track on a slope in the Rockies and then use it to significantly improve the payload of slightly modified Atlas Vs and Delta IVs.
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