Vanguard Spacecraft RLVs

[FutureSpaceTourist]

Vanguard Spacecraft was formed by Steve McGrath and was an Ansari X-prize entrant. Website is still live at www.vanguardspace.com, although no obvious sign of updates in the last few years.

Their proposed X-prize entry, Eagle, used both solid and liquid rockets with two booster stages and a spacecraft. All three would re-enter and land on water by parachute (although the website has images showing separate rotor and glider landing versions of the spacecraft, see at bottom of attached figure).

More details in the attached information from http://space.xprize.org/ansari-x-prize/vanguard-spacecraft and the vehicle graphics from the Vanguard Space website.

 

[FutureSpaceTourist]

Vanguard claimed:

The Eagle is the only X-Prize entry that is designed for both suborbital and orbital flights. It is also the only X-Prize entry that can be up-graded with modules and can be adapted with specialized modules to suit a multitude of missions and recovery methods. The ELS [Eagle Launch System] will be followed by the Payloader Launch System.

Some graphics of Vanguards orbital concepts are attached.