3.4.4 Small Launch Vehicles There is a growing range of small launch vehicles available today including the Scout, Scout II, Pegasus, EER Conestoga and the proposed IMS Orbital Express. (Figure 3.4-4) Pay load performance and cost for these vehicles range from about 100 kg and $4.5 million for the Orbital Express. [23] to 500 kg and $10 million for a Pegasus. No European small launcher exists, nor is one likely to for a number of years. Even though these vehicles are more expensive than other piggyback launch opportunities, they offer the lowest dedicated launch costs. 3.4.5 MASER & MAXUS Sounding Rockets Sounding rockets provide about the same payload capability as a small launch vehicle but at less than half the cost. The European Maser and its larger counterpart Maxus cost between $2-4 million per flight. (Figure 3.4-5) However, the major drawback with these vehicles is the short mission duration of about 7 minutes for a Maser and up to 15 minutes for Maxus. [24] Interestingly, the only Powersat-type experiment that has been conducted in space to date used a sounding rocket (see Section 6.4). 3.6 Space Access Discussion It is not possible to decide at this stage which launch option would best meet the goals of an inexpensive/near-term Powersat demonstrator. However, the above discussion is vital in assessing some of the fundamental space access issues and their impacts on program costs and schedules. These factors are outlined in Figure 3.6-1. Although it is probably not fair to discount any particular option, it seems very clear that the combination of low launch costs and high launch availability puts the Ariane 4 ASAP in the front position as far
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