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| | Spacelift: Suborbital, Earth to Orbit and On-Orbit |
 | | The paper also addresses potential suborbital missions that such a system would allow; discusses different ways of deploying, servicing, and redeploying space assets once they are on-orbit; and explains why this is desirable in some (but not all) cases. |
 | | This assumes, of course, that the TAV also goes to orbit; flying a suborbital trajectory allows a significantly greater payload (6,600 pounds) to be placed in orbit, even after the weight of an upper stage (a 4,765 pound STAR 48V) is subtracted. |
 | | By using a suborbital trajectory during the attack profile, a TAV may use such disposables as chaff, flares, towed decoys, and active defensive munitions to defeat threat weapon systems without contributing to hazardous space junk. |
| www.fas.org /spp/military/docops/usaf/2020/app-h.htm (17442 words) |
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