LETS WELCOME OUR NEW SPACE SHUTTLE REPLACEMENT

iPlop

THE GIST
The Skylon will launch like a conventional aircraft and reach low-Earth orbit without the help of expendable (and expensive) booster rockets.
After 30 years on the drawing board, funding is finally being allocated to this innovative design.
It is hoped that the spaceplane will make access to space cheaper and more routine.

Artist's impression of the Skylon spaceplane taking off from a conventional runway.



Reaction Engines Ltd.
After 30 years of development, the UK and European space agencies have given the go-ahead for the Skylon Spaceplane.

The Skylon, which is being developed at the UK's Oxfordshire-based Reaction Engines Ltd., is an unpiloted and reusable spacecraft that can launch into low-Earth orbit after taking off from a conventional runway.

Looking like something out of Star Wars, Skylon is a self-contained, single stage, all-in-one reusable space vehicle. There are no expensive booster rockets, external fuel tanks or huge launch facilities needed.

PROJECT ICARUS: Conventional Propulsion to Support an Interstellar Probe

The vehicle's hybrid SABRE engines use liquid hydrogen combined with oxygen from the atmosphere at altitudes up to 26km and speeds of up to Mach 5, before switching over to on-board fuel for the final rocket-powered stage of ascent into low-Earth orbit.



The Skylon is intended to cut the costs involved with commercial activity in space, delivering payloads of up to 15 tons including satellites, equipment and even people into orbit at costs much lower than those that use expensive conventional rockets.

Once the spacecraft has completed its mission, it will re-enter Earth's atmosphere and return to base, landing like an airplane on the same runway, making it a totally re-usable spaceplane, with a fast mission turn around.

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Skylon has received approval from a European Space Authority panel tasked with evaluating the design. "No impediments or critical items have been identified for either the Skylon vehicle or the SABRE engine that are a block to further development," the panel's report concludes.

"The consensus for the way forward is to proceed with the innovative development of the engine which in turn will enable the overall vehicle development."

The UK Space Agency says that Reaction Engines will carry out an important demonstration of the SABRE engine's key pre-cooler technology later this summer.

Discoverynews.com

Beeker

Sink The Banana wrote: »

Discoverynews.com

That would be fantastic! Bring it on:D

AugustusMinimus

And people on here complain that the VenutreStar wasn't workable.

This will go the same way as the Rockwell X30 sadly.


Has to be said though, if ESA can make this work, it will open up access to space like never before. Surely they would also make a manned variant if they can make it work.


Anyone guess at a timeline ?

Beeker

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

Anyone guess at a timeline ?

In the region of......I would say.......Don't hold your breath!:(

Stonewolf

We were just talking about this on another thread actually. I've been following this project for a few years now.

The envisioned timescale is 10 years from a successful precooler demonstration. They're demonstrating the precooler this year and the results should be out in a couple of months. If it works then we'd be looking at 2021 (they predict 2020-2025) which is actually a fairly reasonable timescale for development of a new aircraft. It's also mostly privately funded with a business model of building the vehicles only, operation left to the purchasers.

Unlike the X30 and VentureStar it's not funded by NASA and therefore wont follow their cycle of announce-fund-almost complete-cancel-repeat.

Whether all of their sums will turn out to be correct remains to be seen but this project does show a lot of promise and RELs attitude seems to be very mature (for instance they consider Skylon a first generation technology and therefore only promise 200 flights per unit).

Check out their website: http://www.reactionengines.co.uk

AugustusMinimus

Have to wonder what this would do to the satellite launch market if it works.

Any option for GEO launches via some sort of 2nd stage attached to the satellite ?

Stonewolf

The most sensible option would be some form of LEO station with a pure space tug to boost satellites into higher orbits. Taking such a long-term view might not sit well with investors though who would perhaps prefer the short term "cheap" solution of simply putting boosters on the payload.

shizz

Reminds me of The Queens spaceship from starwars episode one hahah )