Rubicon

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Rubicon [Space Transport Corp.]

The Suborbital Tourism Vehicle (STV), dubbed Rubicon, is a reusable suborbital manned spacecraft, designed to carry as many as three people to a 100 km altitude.

The STC Suborbital Tourism Vehicle (STV) was inspired by the X-Prize competition, but also to provide commercial space tourism. Development is under way for the vehicle, which will be capable of winning the $10M competition by launching three people to space (100 km) twice in a two-week period.

Power is provided by seven identical solid rocket engines – each is 12 inches in diameter and approximately 10 feet long. Six of the engines are in a ring configuration around the seventh central engine. For liftoff, four engines will be ignited. After first stage burnout, the two remaining outer engines will be fired for a second stage. The central engine is fired alone for the third stage. The vehicle is almost completely reusable – the engines are cleaned and repacked for the next flight. The vehicle's Attitude Control System (ACS) consists of attitude/position sensing equipment, compressed air jets to provide attitude adjustment as requested by the electronics. Loaded and fueled, the vehicle will weigh approximately 5500 lbs and stand 23 feet high.

The first test flight with two live motors failed, when one of the motors exploded at launch. The unmanned vehicle was destroyed. A second test flight of a second vehicle was planned for early October 2004, but did not take place. It was also to use the reduced version with only two motors, as the licence for suborbital spaceflights had not yet been issued.

No.TypNo Type           Fl.No  Date          LS      Payload 

 1    1  Rubicon (2)           08.08.2004    Qu  * F  Rubicon-1 F1       


Launch Sites

Qu     Queets, Olympic Peninsula, Washington