Vehra - 7,651 bytes. 344 x 204 pixels.

Dassault design for an air-launched experimental reusable launch vehicle. It would be launched from Novespace's Airbus 300 zero-G aircraft. The lifting-body design was loosely based on Dassault's work on the NASA-led X-38 Crew Rescue Vehicle program. VEHRA weighed 6.5 t tonnes and carried 19.5 tonnes of kerosene and oxygen propellant. One Russian 400.5 kN-thrust NK-39 engine would power the vehicle, which would be capable of reaching Mach 14. The 11.5 meter long vehicle also contained a small 1.5 x 1.5 x 5 meter payload bay for an expendable upper stage+250 kg satellite. Like THEMIS, VEHRA would explore hypersonic flight and the operational and cost aspects of reusability.

LEO Payload: 250 kg. to: 185 km Orbit. at: 45.0 degrees. Liftoff Thrust: 40,800 kgf. Total Mass: 27,000 kg. Core Diameter: 1.5 m. Total Length: 11.5 m.

• 484 - Lindroos, Mark, Mark Lindroos' Museum of European RLV's, . HTML when accessed: http://www.ryp.umu.se/~96ml/europe/museum.htm