&sq=Qlik&lang=&file=File:HL-42-pic2.png) NASA schematic from Access to Space Study | |
| Operator | NASA |
|---|---|
| Applications | Crewed spaceplane |
| Specifications | |
| Launch mass | 29 tonnes, including adapters |
| Regime | Low Earth orbit |
| Production | |
| Status | Cancelled |
| Launched | 0 |
| Related spacecraft | |
| Derived from | HL-20 Personnel Launch System |
The HL-42 was a proposed scaled-up version of the HL-20 re-usable crewed spaceplane design, which had been developed from 1983 to 1991 at NASA's Langley Research Center but never flown. Like the HL-20 ("Horizontal Lander 20"), the HL-42 would have been launched into low Earth orbit mounted on top of a two-stage expendable rocket. At the end of the mission, it would have re-entered and glided to a runway landing.
The HL-42 was suggested as one possible successor to the Space Shuttle in the 1994 NASA Access to Space Study. However, another alternative, a Single-stage-to-orbit design, was chosen for further development, and work on the HL-42 was abandoned.