Aerothermodynamics for reusable launch systems

The development of modern spacecrafts (launch and re-entry vehicles), either fully reusable or partly reusable needs powerful tools for the design of the aerodynamic shape with a guarantee for reliable flight and controllability along the complete ascent and descent trajectories. Experimental and numerical tools are available these days and for improving the reliability of vehicle design their capability has to be improved step by step. In the frame of the German TETRA Program very detailed technology work was carried out to reach this goal. The growth of the efficiency of these methods is demonstrated by some specific aerothermodynamic problems which are reported in this paper.