Startup B2Space launches rocket from balloon
The startup B2Space has completed a test flight using a balloon to lift a solid-fueled rocket to high altitude, where the rocket was then launched.
In a 17 November update, the company announced that it had completed a test of its integrated rockoon launch system using a “rocket of lower power than that planned for the commercial version of the system.” The test was conducted from the Port of Vueltas in Valle Gran Rey in the Canary Islands. Its aim was to validate key elements of the company’s rockoon launch system, including the rocket rail alignment and ignition subsystems.
The balloon was launched at 4:00 CET and carried the small rocket to an altitude of 21.5 kilometres, at which point the rocket was launched. Speaking to European Spaceflight, B2Space CTO Valentin confirmed that the ignition system had been successful but did not share any details about the state of the rocket itself. In a 17 November update, the company confirmed that all elements of the launch system had been successfully recovered following the test.
Calling this company a startup is not quite accurate, as it has been around for almost a decade, pushing the idea of a a balloon-launched rocket, dubbed a “rockoon”. The idea itself is not new. If my memory serves me right, it had been tested intermittently in some form as early as the 1950s.
The company hopes to test a larger suborbital version in 2026, followed by an orbital test.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The startup B2Space has completed a test flight using a balloon to lift a solid-fueled rocket to high altitude, where the rocket was then launched.
In a 17 November update, the company announced that it had completed a test of its integrated rockoon launch system using a “rocket of lower power than that planned for the commercial version of the system.” The test was conducted from the Port of Vueltas in Valle Gran Rey in the Canary Islands. Its aim was to validate key elements of the company’s rockoon launch system, including the rocket rail alignment and ignition subsystems.
The balloon was launched at 4:00 CET and carried the small rocket to an altitude of 21.5 kilometres, at which point the rocket was launched. Speaking to European Spaceflight, B2Space CTO Valentin confirmed that the ignition system had been successful but did not share any details about the state of the rocket itself. In a 17 November update, the company confirmed that all elements of the launch system had been successfully recovered following the test.
Calling this company a startup is not quite accurate, as it has been around for almost a decade, pushing the idea of a a balloon-launched rocket, dubbed a “rockoon”. The idea itself is not new. If my memory serves me right, it had been tested intermittently in some form as early as the 1950s.
The company hopes to test a larger suborbital version in 2026, followed by an orbital test.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
I hope they call the rocket ‘Rocky’.
What does launching to orbit from a balloon get you? Most of the energy required to reach orbit is expended getting to the required speed. Starting from a higher height without any speed gain doesn’t help much. My guess is that is why all balloon launch systems so far have been suborbital systems where the chief goal is to attain a certain altitude. For example, model rocket enthusiasts trying to officially reach space have used balloons
@Cloudy,
Launching from a balloon at altitude gets you the ability to use a vac nozzle for higher Isp. Elimination of most of the drag losses. And some ability to thrust horizontally earlier. That is several hundred meters per second savings applied to the rocket equation. If the balloons didn’t come with as many issues of their own I would expect the technique to be more common.
Cloudy, asked: “What does launching to orbit from a balloon get you? Most of the energy required to reach orbit is expended getting to the required speed. Starting from a higher height without any speed gain doesn’t help much. My guess is that is …”
To add more detail to john hare‘s comment:
1. The balloon gives the advantage of launching from any latitude, which allows for an eastward launch for maximum efficiency as little or no energy imparted to velocity is wasted on a northern or southern trajectory. With an eastward launch, the latitude translates directly into the orbital inclination to the equator.
2. Due to the high starting altitude, max Q is a lower force, allowing for lighter fairings and more energy imparted into velocity.
3. Due to the high starting altitude, air density is significantly lower, reducing energy losses from aerodynamic drag and a reduced delta-v expenditure due to this drag.
4. Due to the high starting altitude, horizontal acceleration can begin right away, reducing the gravity drag by perhaps a minute, again reducing the delta-v expenditure.
5. Due to the high starting altitude, vacuum engines can be used, giving a better specific impulse (Isp), which is a higher efficiency use of the propellants (more delta-v per pound of propellant.
6. Around 10% of the energy expenditure is altitude, so a fourteen percent reduction of altitude (350 km orbit) is another 1½% reduction in delta-v expenditure.
It all adds up to greater payload capacity or higher orbital insertion.
A launch from an aircraft, e.g. Pegasus or Virgin Orbit, gives about 600 miles per hour of initial velocity, which is about 3½% of orbital velocity. The aircraft cannot get as high as this balloon did, so the other advantages of the balloon launch (2 through 6) are reduced. Do these two methods break even? I don’t know, but I suspect that the balloon is less expensive than the aircraft, so there is also a price advantage. Oh:
7. Reduced launch costs and less ground support equipment — which would necessarily be portable and storable offsite.
8. You don’t have to worry that your proposed launch base and its pads will be voted down by the neighbors, as happened in Camden County a couple of years ago. Similar problems in Scotland.
And it doesn’t cook anyone named Nedelin if it explodes at altitude. Or any Ground Support Equipment (GSE).
In the past, didn’t sounding rockets punch right through the balloon? No snags?