Rocket landing system
AssigneeAdvanced Product Development, LLC
InventorWilliam Randall McDonnell
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A generally vertical rocket (2) flies generally horizontally into recovery line, cable or chain (3) suspended between towers (5, 7) of a catamaran landing ship (9). High speed winches (11, 13), preferably located near or at the tops of the towers (5, 7) can rapidly reel in or out the recovery line (3) to effectively raise or lower the recovery line (3). The fixture engages a capture device on the rocket located usually above the rocket center of gravity. This invention provides a more reliable means of landing a rocket and also eliminates rocket weight, cost and complexity associated with previous means of landing a rocket.
Claims26
A re-usable rocket equipped with at least one capture device above a portion of one or more main propulsion rocket engines when said rocket is in a vertical attitude to capture an elevated support element and thus allow landing on said elevated support element, wherein said one or more capture devices are not used to support the entire weight of the rocket prior to launch.
A re-usable rocket and a recovery system for said rocket, said recovery system having an elevated support element, and
- a capture device operatively attached to said rocket above the bottom of a main propulsion rocket engine with the rocket in its landing attitude and said capture device positioned so as to capture said elevated support element of said rocket recovery system, said capture device not being used to support the entire weight of the rocket prior to launch.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.