• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.35-42
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• 2020

Recently the reusable launch vehicle is being a major trend in the worldwide space market, because a few commercial companies, especially SpaceX, are trying to cut down the launch price through developing and succeeding the reusable launch vehicles. However, there is still a big controversy about whether in view point of the launch cost which is more favorable between expendable and reusable. Therefore, a study and close examination is required for the launch cost in the early development phase of the reusable launch vehicle. In this study the sensitivity analysis is performed with respect to the major cost parameters which have great effects on the launch cost and price. The standard vehicle of this sensitivity analysis is the expendable vehicle having a payload 20 tons. The cost estimation relationships used in this calculation are referred from the commonly proven cost models such as TRANSCOST. The major cost parameters chosen in this study are as follows: development cost, production cost, refurbishment cost, and maximum reusable number.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.1-9
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• 2019

Recently, in the space market, there has been a rapid reduction of the launch price. The major reason is that a few commercial companies, especially SpaceX, began to enter into the space market about ten years ago, which has changed the space market from monopolization to competition, and accelerated the adoption of commercial efficiency in the technology and management. Also, the successful landing and recovery of a first stage in 2016 by SpaceX proved to be a prelude to opening a new era of reusable launch vehicles, and SpaceX declared the groundbreaking launch price through using the reusable launch vehicle. This study calculates the total launch cost required to put a certain satellite into the LEO, compares the launch cost in three cases with different payload weights, and reviews the impacts of the payload on the cost effectiveness of a reusable vehicle. The total launch cost is divided into 6 subsections cost, namely development cost, production cost, refurbishment cost, operation cost, fixed-cost of factory and launch site, and insurance cost. The cost estimation relationships used in the calculation are taken from the commonly proven cost models such as TRANSCOST.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.567-575
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• 2011

The development of space launch vehicle is an important step to advance to developed countries in the space area. It is also so risky due to necessity of huge costs and longer development period. The accuracy of cost estimation is important to develop a space launch vehicle successfully and efficiently. It is also necessary to estimate production and operation cost in order to develop commercial space launch vehicle possessing competitiveness. In this paper, Korean factors to be able to reflect the current state of workforce, average working hours and technology readiness level in Korea were analyzed to estimate production and operation cost of space launch vehicles that are developed in Korea. Korean factors have been applied to production and operation cost estimation of KSLV-II based on TRANSCOST. We evaluated the competitiveness level of KSLV-II as the commercial launch vehicle in the commercial launch services market by comparing with cost per flight of foreign launch vehicles.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.119-125
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• 2007

Space launch vehicle development needs many kinds of technologies synthetically. Nowadays, KARI (Korea Aerospace Research Institute) has developed a space launch vehicle, KSLV-I (Korea Space Launch Vehicle-I), that is able to load with an 100kg payload. After that it plans to develop Korean Space Launch Vehicle. As space launch vehicle becomes more complicate and larger, it needs a scientific and analytic development cost estimation. In this paper a cost estimation for KSLV-II using TRANSCOST 7.1 was studied.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.364-374
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to perform the reliability-corrected development cost estimation of the launch vehicle at the conceptual design phase. In order to estimate the launch vehicle development cost, the estimation method based on the independent variable such as the rocket performance and dry mass has been mainly implemented up to now. This approach has made the approximate cost estimation possible, however, the cost variation according to the reliability requirement could not be reflected. In this paper, the cost estimation methodology that introduces the reliability factor in addition to the performance and mass in the TRANSCOST model is presented in order to improve the limitation of current cost estimation method. The development cost of KSLV(Korea Space Launch Vehicle)-II is estimated on the basis of this newly implemented concept with reliability as an added parameter.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.576-584
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• 2011

In order to develop a launch vehicle successfully, it is important to estimate development costs accurately but it is also important to plan the annual budget. In this paper, the statistical method was utilized for cost spreading. For cost spread modeling, the suitability of the model by analyzing several statistical models was evaluated and consequently, the beta-distribution model has been selected. In this study, the validity of the annual estimation cost model was verified through the comparison of the actual development cost distribution and the estimating cost distribution of Space Shuttle Main Engine. In addition, this paper estimated the annual budget required for the development of the KSLV-II using currently allocated cost for successful development. It is anticipated that the present cost spread model can be applied to not only launch vehicle development but also other large complex system development.

• Proceedings of the Korea Information Processing Society Conference
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• 2016.10a
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• pp.465-466
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• 2016

다양한 유도무기체계의 개발로 이를 시험하거나 훈련하기 위한 발사체계모의 소프트웨어가 반복되어 개발되고 있다. 이러한 소프트웨어는 개발비는 적으나 높은 신뢰성을 요구한다. 따라서 소프트웨어의 품질 향상과 개발 및 유지보수 비용 절감을 위해서는 소프트웨어 재사용이 필요하다. 본 논문에서는 다양한 접근을 통해 발사체계모의 소프트웨어 개발지원을 위한 프레임워크의 개발방안에 대해 제안한다. 여러 체계마다 공통으로 사용될 수 있는 기능을 추출하고 이들의 집합을 프레임워크로 정의한다. 본 프레임워크를 발사체계 시뮬레이터 개발에 이용 시 개발 및 유지보수 비용절감 및 소프트웨어 품질 향상을 기대할 수 있다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.184-188
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• 2004

Air-launch is an efficient method which can launch nanosats at cheap cost and has no restrictions on the selection of launching sites. This paper is for the preliminary design of air-launching rocket for nanosat which can launch nanosats to LEO. The detailed configuration design results are embodied by implementing the DMU(Digital Mock-Up) of CATIA.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.45 no.12
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• pp.1069-1075
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• 2017

With the recent development of space technology, the satellite market, especially the small satellite market, is growing globally. As the satellite market continues to grow, the launch vehicle market is also growing, and demand for low-cost launches is increasing. There are a number of options for low-cost launches, including development of engine that uses low-cost propellants, product and transportation cost savings, but the most effective way to reduce launch costs is to reuse the used launch vehicles. USA's Space Shuttle, a famous rocket as manned spacecraft, could be referred as the start of reusable launch vehicle. However, Space Shuttle had limited reusable parts and it was very expensive even though it is a reusable launch vehicle because of its low efficiency. In recent years, aiming at a real reusable launch vehicle, reusable launch vehicle for commercial purposes have been developed around USA's SpaceX and Blue Origin, and re-landing tests were successfully accomplished. In addition, SpaceX successfully did the re-using of first-stage launch vehicle that had been succeeded in re-landing already. In accordance with this trend, countries such as Europe and India are also concentrating on the study of reusable launch vehicles. Including Blue Origin, companies like Virgin Galactic and XCOR in the United States, are also trying to commercialize the same reusable technology as the private manned space tourism. Confirmation of these technology trends is essential, because the re-use technology could change the landscape of the global launch vehicle market.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.45 no.10
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• pp.855-862
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• 2017

Due to the weight reduction and miniaturization of satellites, there is a growing interest in low-cost launch vehicles, which are cheaper to launch than larger launch vehicles. One of the most cost-effective ways to reduce the cost of launch vehicles is the reuse of vehicles. Most companies that are developing low cost launch vehicles are also adopting a vehicles reuse approach. Along with this reuse purpose, the demand for environmentally friendly space launch vehicles has increased, so the choice of fuel used for low cost launch vehicles has also become very important. Methane and hydrogen-enriched compressed natural gas (HCNG), which makes more energy-efficient by adding hydrogen to methane, are considered to be the most suitable when considering other factors such as energy density among the fuels that are eco-friendly and capable of reusing the launch vehicles. This study investigated the trends of low-cost launch vehicle and rocket fuel in the world as a reference for setting up domestic space development after the development of Korea Space Launch Vehicle-II.