Proposing A Japanese-British-Australian Reusable Launch Vehicle

[eacao]

Japan and Great Britain hold illustrious histories in technology and industry. Australia, humbler, nevertheless maintains lofty ambitions for the decades ahead. From the U.K.’s Tempest program for a next-generation fighter, and Japan’s Mitsubishi F-X program, a synthesised joint-initiative has been born as the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP). This initiative of intergovernmental and industry cooperation will deliver a new air dominance fighter for not only these two technological powers, but also Italy and potentially Sweden. On the high seas, the AUKUS arrangement has granted Australia’s Department of Defence the keys to the vault of British and American nuclear technology in order to usher in an Australian nuclear submarine capability.

Presently, Japan, Britain, and Australia possess independent space programmes. Japan has built a domestic launch vehicle in the form of the existing H-II with the newer H3’s maiden flight just around the corner. In the U.K., Skyrora is poised to deliver an orbital capability in the Skyrora-XL, and in Australia, the strawberry-farmer turned space-entrepreneur, Adam Gilmour, is set to deliver the maiden flight of the Eris orbital vehicle this year (2023).

But greater things are afoot in the international spaceflight sector. China and the United States have rippled off a horde of public and private initiatives to produce partially and fully reusable launch vehicles. Stoke Aerospace, Relativity Space, Blue Origin, Rocket Labs, the United Launch Alliance, and the reigning king — SpaceX, all compete for leadership in the States. Over in the Orient, I-Space, Galactic Energy, LandSpace, OneSpace, and the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology each pursue their respective reusability initiatives in the hopes of closing the gap with SpaceX.

In the years ahead, those nations with a fully-reusable launch capability will simply dominate cislunar space. Those without will either be entirely beholden to foreign reusable launch capabilities or limited to an archaic and comprehensively bottlenecked mode of space access. An impetus therefore exists in Australia, the U.K., and Japan to pursue reusable initiatives of their own lest they be left behind, and an opportunity exists for collaboration in order to ease the burdens of such a tricky enterprise. A collaboration between the three islands makes sense. This collaboration could leverage the comparative advantages of the three industrial bases and the capital depth of the three Governments.

220 million citizens find representation in these three parliaments (or, “Diet”, in the case of Japan) and in-excess of $10 trillion of domestic economic productivity is accounted for. The engineering prowess of Mitsubishi, Rolls Royce, and BAE systems are known quantities and the three nations are engaged in aerospace or nuclear collaborations that require intimate and high-bandwidth industrial and governmental cooperation already. These are, of course, every bit as sensitive and advanced as sovereign launch capabilities.

What might such a launch vehicle resemble? Relatively little imagination is required here, thanks to the pathfinding work already accomplished in the United States. A two-stage vehicle sporting a VTVL methalox first stage seems like a reasonable and attainable goal for the triad. Reusability for only this first stage might simplify the development of the design’s first iteration, with the second-stage consuming hydrolox and intended to remain in cislunar space. This second-stage might operate as a multi-use space tug to be refuelled by the water resources developed on the Moon by NASA. If contracting these lunar resources proves unready or unavailable, then this second-stage might simply be expended via de-orbiting. In this hydrolox configuration, JAXA and Mitsubishi might reasonably be the preferred experts, leaving Rolls Royce or another Anglo organisation to carry the weight of the first-stage's methalox power-plant.

Thereafter, a reusable second-stage might be integrated for purely orbital-delivery missions. While hydrolox seems the natural solution to a cislunar circuit (given Lunar water resources), a methalox second-stage might be the better fit for an upper stage intended to return to Earth. Thus, depending on the mission, the first stage might either loft a hydrolox second-stage (effectively a spacecraft unto itself) into cislunar space never to return, or a reusable methalox second-stage for rapid turnaround. We end up with a first-generation vehicle that resembles Blue Origin’s New Glenn in several ways, and a second-generation variant similar to Starship.

And how might the three nations go about jointly manufacturing and operating these vehicles? There are more options than one. Each nation, with its national aerospace participant, would take on an area of responsibility before before final assembly on one of the three islands. Thereafter, the three nations might take delivery of completed vehicles and operate them independently. Reusable launch vehicles might be operated in a similar vein to national airlines or strategic airlift capabilities. Just as the three countries independently operate the C-17, they might operate an analogous “JUKA” fleet of rockets. Each would fit out their respective launch complexes for high-tempo operations and go about their business. Alternatively, a jointly-operated space complex may be constructed near the site of final assembly. Each nation sports its own launch complex, but for reasons of both latitude and east-facing freedom into the sparsely-populated Pacific, Cairns, Australia might represent an elegant choice.

An international consortium of aerospace firms could allow its participating members to engage in engineering feats unavailable to them in isolation. On account of the pre-existing industrial relationships between the United Kingdom and Japan (GCAP), and the United Kingdom and Australia (AUKUS), a tripartite space launch pact might represent an opportunity for these three nations to punch well above their individual weights in the nascent New Space phenomenon. This triad would be able to operate on an equal footing with the global giants. If this undertaking is initiated in the near future, we may in fact represent the third reusable launch market in the world — heading out even the European Space Agency and its Arianespace provider.