Interplanetary Spaceship | Wikipedia audio article
Channel: wikipedia tts
Date: 2019-03-27

This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITS_launch_vehicle


00:02:56 1 History
00:10:15 2 Description and technical specifications
00:12:39 2.1 ITS booster
00:15:26 2.2 Spacecraft that operate briefly as upper stages during launch
00:17:21 2.2.1 Interplanetary spaceship
00:18:34 2.2.2 ITS tanker
00:19:43 2.3 Reusability
00:21:05 2.4 Launch location
00:21:37 3 Operations concept
00:22:24 4 Economic considerations
00:22:34 4.1 Funding
00:23:32 4.2 Competition for the American super-heavy-lift market



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SUMMARY
=======
The ITS launch vehicle was a 2016-2017 design for a privately funded orbital launch vehicle planned to be developed by SpaceX.  Design work was discontinued in 2017 when development was shifted to a smaller version, now called BFR. 
The initial design objective of the ITS launch vehicle was to launch a variety of SpaceX Interplanetary Transport System missions to Mars and other destinations in the beyond-Earth-orbit portion of the Solar System. The first launch was not expected before the 2020s.The ITS launch vehicle was to be operated as a somewhat unusual two-stage rocket. Its first stage was to have been powered by 42 Raptor rocket engines—designed and manufactured by SpaceX—operating on densified (chilled near triple point) methane/oxygen, propellants that have not been widely used as rocket propellants in the past. Like the Falcon 9 orbital launch vehicle that preceded it, the ITS launch vehicle's first stage design was intended to be reusable, following a return to the launch site and vertical landing following each launch. When announced, it was also designed to have a new feature for SpaceX launch vehicles:  full reusability of even the second-stage and orbital spacecraft as well.  The large payload capacity of the launch vehicle placed it into the super-heavy lift class, with the ability to place 300 tonnes (660,000 lb) into low Earth orbit in reusable configuration and 550 tonnes (1,210,000 lb) in expendable mode.The second stage of the Earth launch vehicle was planned to have two versions, the Interplanetary spaceship for passengers and cargo and the ITS tanker to deliver propellants to Earth orbit. Both were to be powered by six vacuum-optimized Raptor rocket engines with three additional sea-level-nozzle Raptor engines for maneuvering.  Thus, the element of the launch vehicle that was to provide second-stage acceleration to orbital velocity on all launches from Earth would also be used as an on-orbit spacecraft.  The Interplanetary spaceship was planned as a very long-duration carrier of both passengers and space cargo to interplanetary destinations, and was to have served as both a descent and ascent vehicle at Mars.
The high-level specifications for the vehicle were publicly announced in September 2016, but by July 2017, SpaceX had stated they would not build the 12 m (39 ft)-diameter vehicles as previously planned, but would instead build a "still large" but much smaller launch vehicle first. Subsequently, that was revealed to be the BFR in September 2017, a vehicle intended to cost-effectively replace and supersede all existing SpaceX launch vehicles and passenger/cargo spacecraft.