Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Swiss Space Systems (S3) and Their Pudgy Bantam Spaceplane

From Dvice:

Switzerland will start testing this chubby spaceplane next year

Credit: S3
Swiss Space Systems (S3), a Swiss company that develops, er, space systems, has managed to pull together $265 million to build a prototype of a small, autonomous spaceplane that would be able to quickly and efficiently launch satellites into orbit. For just $10.5 million, you'd be able to send a 250kg satellite payload into a 700km orbit, which is about four times cheaper than it costs right now.

To make this work, S3 is relying on the recently popular first-stage aircraft, using an Airbus A300 to hoist the spaceplane up to 33,000 feet. The spaceplane then pops off, and fires up its rocket engine to make it up to 260,000 feet (80km) or so....MORE
Here's www.s-3.ch.