I wonder what the deal is with this company, and who is funding it?
17 thoughts on “A Point-To-Point Space Transport?”
I wonder if it’s the same guys who sold their load of goods to the Spaceport Colorado people.
~Jon
Regular ballistic flights have to be about fifty times cheaper. I think we could get there, but I am skeptical.
Sounds like a Rocketplane incarnation to me. Of course, I’m just judging by the press release. (12:50 pm prediction.)
Unlikely, but who knows, someone may have put up the money to give Pioneer Rocketplane another shot.
Or there’s an outfit called Rocket Crafters that’s said they want to build small training aircraft that combine jet and hybrid rocket propulsion.
It’ll be interesting to see what the deal is with this.
Two words- track record?
I see you beat me to mentioning Rocketplane as a possibility by seven minutes, John! The bit about training as a business makes me think more Rocket Crafters, though; they’ve said they want to address that market.
Tsk, Doug, shame on you, bringing up track record when people are talking about throwing millions around. That’s hardly getting into the spirit of things!
Though seriously, the time to look at track record is when we know who it actually is, possibly in just a few minutes…
Yeah, it smelled like them (they’re the ones I mentioned above as having suckered the Spaceport Colorado guys). If they just stuck to selling stories about doing a jet/hybrid rocket trainer, that would be stupid but honest. But everyone who talks with them seems to think that single-stage-to-Singapore transportation that takes off and lands using jet engines is just around the corner…
~Jon
Jonathan,
I was wondering who sold Colorado that bill of goods. The Front Range Airport makes no sense as a spaceport. At least not with the current systems available. Its just too close to the Denver International Airport.
Tom
Tom,
Yeah, they were the ones that who sold Spaceport Colorado on suborbital point-to-point. I was at a panel discussion about the spaceport and got to meet several of the people involved (on the Spaceport Colorado side). I tried to talk sense into them, honest!
Now that said, I’m not 100% sure they couldn’t find a way to make Front Range airport work even in spite of DIA’s airspace. XCOR is likely going to have to tackle similar integration with the NAS issues for operations out of Midland’s airport, and while DIA is bigger and busier, that doesn’t mean that a sane approach to integrating sRLVs into the national airspace system couldn’t work with a place as busy as DIA. Definitely an acid-test, but from what I’ve heard, the FAA actually wants to find a way to integrate at least reusable rockets into the national airspace.
~Jon
I guess if they actually made a jet/hybrid rocket spaceplane the proximity of the airport wouldn’t be much of a problem since they can fly on jet power to get away from the airport. Still seems like a bunch of vapor to me.
Godzilla,
That was exactly the line I kept hearing. They kept using jargon that nobody in the industry uses (ie to them horizontal launch implies using jet engines for takeoff, and vertical launch is always expendable rockets…), and believed that by making the first part of the takeoff jet-powered they’d somehow get the benefits of being this intercontinental fast-transit hub without having to deal without having to go through the trouble that other spaceports do.
~Jon
But everyone who talks with them seems to think that single-stage-to-Singapore transportation that takes off and lands using jet engines is just around the corner..
Did you read Perigee by Patrick Chiles ? ? : )
I’ve often thought there must be a market (likely small) for long-distance short travel-time package service. I’m thinking critical medical supplies like vaccines or organs for transplant. If the sub-orbital or near-ballistic transport could take off and land at international airports, at least it would help that much. Maybe these guys think they can make it cheap enough. Sometimes you need to lower the barrier to entry to see what all you can do with an idea.
How many tons of conventional bombs could a fully reusable Falcon 9 toss?.. it may be cheaper than sending a B2 halfway across the world if the only cost is the fuel for the Falcon 9
I wonder if it’s the same guys who sold their load of goods to the Spaceport Colorado people.
~Jon
Regular ballistic flights have to be about fifty times cheaper. I think we could get there, but I am skeptical.
Sounds like a Rocketplane incarnation to me. Of course, I’m just judging by the press release. (12:50 pm prediction.)
Unlikely, but who knows, someone may have put up the money to give Pioneer Rocketplane another shot.
Or there’s an outfit called Rocket Crafters that’s said they want to build small training aircraft that combine jet and hybrid rocket propulsion.
It’ll be interesting to see what the deal is with this.
Two words- track record?
I see you beat me to mentioning Rocketplane as a possibility by seven minutes, John! The bit about training as a business makes me think more Rocket Crafters, though; they’ve said they want to address that market.
Tsk, Doug, shame on you, bringing up track record when people are talking about throwing millions around. That’s hardly getting into the spirit of things!
Though seriously, the time to look at track record is when we know who it actually is, possibly in just a few minutes…
It’s rocket crafters:
http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012120710014
They named a city after me? I am honored.
Yeah, it smelled like them (they’re the ones I mentioned above as having suckered the Spaceport Colorado guys). If they just stuck to selling stories about doing a jet/hybrid rocket trainer, that would be stupid but honest. But everyone who talks with them seems to think that single-stage-to-Singapore transportation that takes off and lands using jet engines is just around the corner…
~Jon
Jonathan,
I was wondering who sold Colorado that bill of goods. The Front Range Airport makes no sense as a spaceport. At least not with the current systems available. Its just too close to the Denver International Airport.
Tom
Tom,
Yeah, they were the ones that who sold Spaceport Colorado on suborbital point-to-point. I was at a panel discussion about the spaceport and got to meet several of the people involved (on the Spaceport Colorado side). I tried to talk sense into them, honest!
Now that said, I’m not 100% sure they couldn’t find a way to make Front Range airport work even in spite of DIA’s airspace. XCOR is likely going to have to tackle similar integration with the NAS issues for operations out of Midland’s airport, and while DIA is bigger and busier, that doesn’t mean that a sane approach to integrating sRLVs into the national airspace system couldn’t work with a place as busy as DIA. Definitely an acid-test, but from what I’ve heard, the FAA actually wants to find a way to integrate at least reusable rockets into the national airspace.
~Jon
I guess if they actually made a jet/hybrid rocket spaceplane the proximity of the airport wouldn’t be much of a problem since they can fly on jet power to get away from the airport. Still seems like a bunch of vapor to me.
Godzilla,
That was exactly the line I kept hearing. They kept using jargon that nobody in the industry uses (ie to them horizontal launch implies using jet engines for takeoff, and vertical launch is always expendable rockets…), and believed that by making the first part of the takeoff jet-powered they’d somehow get the benefits of being this intercontinental fast-transit hub without having to deal without having to go through the trouble that other spaceports do.
~Jon
But everyone who talks with them seems to think that single-stage-to-Singapore transportation that takes off and lands using jet engines is just around the corner..
Did you read Perigee by Patrick Chiles ? ? : )
I’ve often thought there must be a market (likely small) for long-distance short travel-time package service. I’m thinking critical medical supplies like vaccines or organs for transplant. If the sub-orbital or near-ballistic transport could take off and land at international airports, at least it would help that much. Maybe these guys think they can make it cheap enough. Sometimes you need to lower the barrier to entry to see what all you can do with an idea.
How many tons of conventional bombs could a fully reusable Falcon 9 toss?.. it may be cheaper than sending a B2 halfway across the world if the only cost is the fuel for the Falcon 9
It depends on the asteroid!