Christian Hantz

German Aerospace Center (DLR) | DLR · Department of Supersonic and Hypersonic Technology (HY)

While initially met with skepticism, launch vehicles with reusable stages are now an established and successful part of the global launch market. Thus, there is a need to analyze and assess the possibility of such a system being designed and built in Europe. Accordingly, in 2016 the German Aerospace Center (DLR) initiated a study on reusable first...

RETALT (RETro propulsion Assisted Landing Technologies) is a project funded in the frame of the European Union Horizon 2020 program, that is studying critical key technologies for the vertical landing of launcher configurations with the aid of retro propulsion. In particular Aerodynamics, Aerothermodynamics, Flight Dynamics and Guidance Navigation...

The RETALT (RETro propulsion Assisted Landing Technologies) project aims to investigate vertically landing launcher configurations, which decelerate by means of retro propulsion manoeuvres during the descent and final landing phase. One key objective was to understand the complex steady and unsteady flow field and the resulting oscillating pressure...

Since SpaceX successfully demonstrated the vertical landing of launcher first stages and made this way of returning them to earth a routine operation with over 100 successful landings after 6 years, the interest in Europe to develop the key technologies for this approach has drastically increased. It not only promises large cost savings, but also r...

In the frame of the RETALT project a large number of CFD simulations and Wind Tunnel experiments were made for both the RETALT1 and RETALT2 configurations to better understand the physics and mechanisms of retro-propulsion at supersonic flow conditions. For RETALT1, it was found in both CFD and Wind Tunnel experiments that the flow structure (bow s...

This paper provides an overview of the project ‘RocketHandbrake’, which investigates the reusability of upper stages re-entering the earth’s atmosphere at high angles of attack as a means for aerodynamic braking, using Supersonic Braking Devices. For a maximum benefit, this concept takes so-called Ariane Next and Vega E -like launchers as reference...

The excel file contains the Aerodynamic Data Base for the RETALT1 configuration. The pdf file contains the necessary information to use this data base. the excle file can be found under: https://zenodo.org/record/7027367

The excel file contains the Aerodynamic Data Base for the RETALT2 configuration. The pdf file contains the necessary information to use this data base. The excel file can be found under: https://zenodo.org/record/7081540

The European project RETALT (Retro Propulsion Assisted Landing Technologies), funded by the Horizon 2020 framework program (Grant agreement No 821890), has as main objective to investigate critical technologies for the assisted descent and landing of re-usable first stages. Among these technologies, one can find aerodynamics, aerothermodynamics, fl...

In the RETALT (RETro propulsion Assisted Landing Technologies) project vertical landing launcher configurations are investigated. In the aerodynamic phase of retro propulsion assisted descent and landing, the main devices for control and trim of the vehicle are the aerodynamic control surfaces. In this paper, experimental data of a novel concept wh...

The recent success of the emerging private space companies SpaceX and Blue Origin in landing, recovering and relaunching reusable first stages have demonstrated the possibility of building reliable and low-cost reusable first stages. Thus, the importance for assessing whether such a reusable launch vehicle (RLV) could be designed and built in Europ...

The German Aerospace Centre (DLR) is conducting systematic analyses of reusable space transportation configurations. Two-stage vertical take-off vertical landing (VTVL) and winged, vertical take-off horizontal landing (VTHL) partially reusable launcher configurations are systematically analyzed. The investigated configurations consider reusable fir...