64th International Astronautical Congress, Beijing, China. Copyright ©2013 by the International Astronautical Federation. All rights reserved. IAC-13-E6.2.6 x19035 INDUSTRIAL INNOVATION CYCLE ANALYSIS OF THE ORBITAL LAUNCH VEHICLE INDUSTRY Julio Aprea European Space Agency, France,
[email protected] Ulfert Block European Space Agency, France,
[email protected] Emmanuelle David Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V., Germany,
[email protected] The analysis in this paper provides an initial look at the Orbital Launch Vehicle Industry within the Model for Industrial Innovation, proposed by James M. Utterback and William J. Abernathy in their article “Patterns of Industrial Innovation” (1978). The paper starts with a summary of the Abernathy-Utterback Model, its phases (fluid, transitional and specific) and its characteristics, the concept of dominant design and the focus on product and process innovation. This work then analyses the Orbital Launch Vehicle industry from a historical perspective of its major innovations and compares the development of this industry with the Abernathy-Utterback Model. It as well highlights some interesting current developments and analyses certain technology innovations that will likely shape the industry in the future, namely serial production and incremental degrees of reusability. Based on this analysis this paper finally draws some preliminary conclusions and proposes future work on the subject. INTRODUCTION at defining the elements of the dominant design and This paper is part of a series of papers aiming at determining which phase of the Innovation Model we analysing the different sectors of the space industry are currently experiencing. from the point of view of different innovation models and industry structure theories.