LAUNCH VEHICLE DEVELOPMENT
Our launch vehicle is designed to boost the Spacecraft into a suborbital trajectory with apogee above 100 km. The mission of the propulsion group is to develop this launch vehicle.
The challenge for the launch vehicle group of CS is to cover the big gap from small amateur rockets to the multi ton rockets needed to haul the 500 kg spacecraft payload beyond 100 km Kármán line. In order to meet this challenge we must master a non-solid type of rocket propulsion to such perfection that we ultimately can commit it to launching a human into space.
A driving force in the design of our rockets is that we try not to use toxic, corrosive or dangerous propellants. All propellants - especially oxidizers are dangerous if not handled properly - but we tend to chose those with the least problems.
That sends us away from solids and into hybrids and liquids - and it sends us into the extensive use of liquid oxygen as the prime oxidizer. Its non toxic properties comes at cost in operational complexity - but we prefer to get better of handling that than to suit up to handle toxic, storable propellants. Of cause somethings just can´t be done with out toxic materials - and then we develop procedures for its safe use. However - we try our best the pick the least toxic solutions no mater if its the paint, the welding technique or the propellant. Its a basic choice any launch vehicle development will need to answer early in the process.
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