// ORBITAL LOGISTICS AND PROPULSION TERM
Suborbital
A flight path that reaches space but does not complete a full orbit around a celestial body. The object goes up and then comes back down, like a very high ballistic missile or a space tourism flight.
TECHNICAL DEFINITION
A suborbital trajectory is a flight path where a spacecraft or object reaches space (e.g., above the Kármán line) but lacks sufficient horizontal velocity to achieve a stable orbit around a celestial body, resulting in a ballistic return.
BACKGROUND
Space tourism is human space travel for recreational purposes. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism. Tourists are motivated by the possibility of viewing Earth from space, feeling weightlessness, experiencing extremely high speed, and contributing to science.
READ MORE ON WIKIPEDIASYNONYMS & ALIASES
- Ballistic flight
- Up-and-down flight
- Space jump
USAGE NOTE
Suborbital flights are increasingly used for space tourism, scientific research, and testing new rocket technologies.
DEVELOPERS
Organizations developing technology related to Suborbital.
Develops and operates the New Shepard reusable suborbital rocket system for space tourism, scientific research, and payload deployment.
Offers suborbital spaceflights for private astronauts using its SpaceShipTwo vehicle, focused on space tourism and research.
Provides suborbital launch services using its SpaceLoft and Spyder rockets for various government, university, and commercial research payloads.
Develops and operates the SARGE (Suborbital Autonomous Rocket with Guided Expulsion) reusable suborbital rocket for payload testing and research.
Developing a suborbital spaceplane, the Mk-II Aurora, designed for frequent, rapid access to space for research and payload delivery.
Utilizes sounding rockets to conduct suborbital research in fields like heliophysics, astrophysics, and planetary science, providing access to space for instruments and experiments.
While primarily focused on orbital flight, SpaceX has developed and tested suborbital vehicles, notably the Starhopper and early Starship prototypes, for demonstrating reusable rocket technologies.