challenge conventional thinking in
launch technology.
Since Sputnik 1 in 1957, all
spacecraft and satellites have been
placed into orbit by expendable
multi-stage rockets. Like many
in the aerospace community,
Bond believes that these have a
fundamental design flaw. Whether
a launch vehicle is powered by
solid or liquid propellant, a large
proportion of a vehicle’s launch
mass is taken up by its oxidiser that
is required for combustion to take
place. The irony is that for much
of its launch the vehicle is passing
through all the oxygen it needs in
the Earth’s atmosphere.
As convention