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A company in the UK is working on a multithrust rocket/launch vehicle that would be reusable. It mixes a super-cooled jet engine with a rocket booster. For once
by legomaster 11y ago
A company in the UK is working on a multithrust rocket/launch vehicle that would be reusable. It mixes a super-cooled jet engine with a rocket booster. For once you get beyond enough air pressure for the jet engine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SABRE_(rocket_engine) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SABRE_(rocket_engine)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylon_(spacecraft) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylon_(spacecraft)
Something like this, that's reusable, would allow small (but larger than cubesat) payloads into orbit for what should be a reasonable price. 200 launch lifetime on the vehicle is the plan.
- TrevorJ 11y agoSeems like a really interesting idea. For now I've got my money on SpaceX in terms of decreasing the cost to orbit first, they have the hardware already up and flying, and it's a bit less exotic so the engineering issues may be more well understood.
- legomaster 11y agoI agree, I think SpaceX will have re-usable rockets with the Falcon 9 long before this is working. But I believe you could extend the jet-powered-rockets to larger launch vehicles than you could the tech in the Falcon 9. Plus, the tech might be able to be extended to have cheaper super-sonic flights. But that's long ways down the road.
- TrevorJ 11y agoI agree, it's quite an exciting proposition if we can get a real space plane.