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I have come up with another incredulously useless idea: a vehicle that can fly into orbit atop a booster, grapple an orbiting object- such as a satellite, or space station module, and return it to Earth.
Essentially, a castrated Shuttle- an unmanned shuttle, launched empty on an expendable booster, have a rendezvous capability, and then land conventionally, borrowing basically the entire return phase from STS.
Reusability would be optional but preferred, and less intensive due to the less complex nature of the vehicle. Propulsion system would be based off of something like the Delta K upper stage, and vehicle mass would hopefully be roughly 40 tons, suitable for launch on upper-heavy vehicles such as Falcon 9 heavy + Raptor, Angara A7 or Rus-MT50.
On-orbit power supply would presumably be based on solar panels.
Essentially, a castrated Shuttle- an unmanned shuttle, launched empty on an expendable booster, have a rendezvous capability, and then land conventionally, borrowing basically the entire return phase from STS.
Reusability would be optional but preferred, and less intensive due to the less complex nature of the vehicle. Propulsion system would be based off of something like the Delta K upper stage, and vehicle mass would hopefully be roughly 40 tons, suitable for launch on upper-heavy vehicles such as Falcon 9 heavy + Raptor, Angara A7 or Rus-MT50.
On-orbit power supply would presumably be based on solar panels.
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