HL-20 Personnel Launch System

HL-20 Personnel Launch System
HL-20 Mock-Up
OperatorNASA
ApplicationsCrewed spaceplane
Specifications
Launch mass10,884 kg (23,995 lb)
RegimeLow Earth
Production
StatusCancelled
Launched0
Related spacecraft
DerivativesHL-42, Dream Chaser

The HL-20 Personnel Launch System was a NASA spaceplane concept for crewed orbital missions studied by NASA's Langley Research Center around 1990. It was envisaged as a lifting body re-entry vehicle similar to the Soviet BOR-4 spaceplane design.[1] Its stated goals were to achieve low operational costs, improved flight safety, and a possibility of landing on conventional runways.[2] No flight hardware was built.

  1. ^ Hodges, Jim (Fall 2011). "The Dream Chaser: Back to the Future". ASK Magazine. NASA. Archived from the original on 2 December 2013. Retrieved 16 November 2013.
  2. ^ Chang, Kenneth (31 January 2011). "Businesses Take Flight, With Help From NASA". The New York Times. Boulder, Colorado. Retrieved 25 June 2011.