Small-size suborbital and orbital vehicles are interesting tools for civilian and military missions.

 Dawn Aerospace Mark II Aurora (Image I)

The new operator in the private spaceflight sector is New Zealander "Dawn Aerospace". That corporation's suborbital drone made its maiden flight and that means that there is worldwide interest in the small orbital and suborbital shuttles that can host manned or unmanned missions. 

The mission profile of those small spacecraft can also be hybrid. That means the shuttle can take the remote-control man-looking robot to the orbital, and that vehicle can operate independently or under remote control and fix the satellites which are damaged. 

The suborbital aircraft can make the ballistic jump out of the atmosphere by using two methods. In the first version, the launch will happen by using traditional rockets.  The smallest suborbital vehicles are using launch vehicles like Pegasus rocket which can launch from aircraft or rise to the high atmosphere by balloon before their rocket system is launched. 

And in the second version. The TAV (Trans Atmospheric Vehicle) can use Scramjet engines for accelerating itself in the atmosphere, for the speed that is high enough for the ballistic jump. The scramjet is the hypersonic jet engine that is allowing to flight over Mach 20. In that system, the scramjet is accelerating shuttle at the atmosphere and it makes the ballistic jump. The ballistic jump means that the vehicle rises out of the atmosphere and it can launch a small satellite in that mission. 

X-51 Hypersonic test vehicle under the B-52 (Image II) 

 

Larger size systems like HOTOL (High-Orbital Take-Off and Laund) shuttle can use regular jet engines for rising to higher atmosphere. The HOTOL was terminated in the 1990s. But the more advanced "Skylon" program replaced it. And then launch regular rocket engines. But the reason why Scramjet technology is developed is that because the system doesn't need an oxygen tank that thing will save the cargo space in that kind of vehicle. 

But from the point of view of the military. The small shuttles are offering a new and powerful platform for intelligence and other types of missions. Those shuttles can have kill vehicles, which they can use for destroying the recon, GPS, and communication satellites. 

Those kinds of systems are playing a vital role in targeting smart weapons.  And deliver launching codes for strategic submarines. But the suborbital vehicles can drop also bombs from space. The new hypersonic systems can also hit targets by using kinetic energy.  

When the speed of the vehicle is 20 000 km/h that causes extremely powerful impact energy. This thing makes them suitable for use in HGS (Hypersonic Glide systems). The small-size shuttles can carry nuclear weapons, and they can use as the new type of FOBS (Fractional Orbital Bombardment System)-weapons. Originally FOBS meant the Soviet system where nuclear warheads were positioned outside the atmosphere in the satellites.  

This is the extreme version of the kamikaze drones. The shuttle can send to orbital trajectory and if the strike is delayed that shuttle can bring the warhead back to base. But in the case of the strike, the system can just dive to target and launch its weapon. 

()https://www.dawnaerospace.com/

()https://www.defesanet.com.br/en/technology/noticia/29097/Hypersonic-Missiles--A-New-Proliferation-Challenge/

()https://www.space.com/dawn-aerospace-space-plane-first-test-flights-video

()https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional_Orbital_Bombardment_System

()https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Aerospace_HOTOL

()https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylon_%28spacecraft%29

(Image I):()https://www.dawnaerospace.com/

(Image II):()https://www.defesanet.com.br/en/technology/noticia/29097/Hypersonic-Missiles--A-New-Proliferation-Challenge/

()https://kimmoswritings.blogspot.com/2021/08/small-size-suborbital-and-orbital.html