Skylon (spacecraft)

Skylon is a series of concept designs for a reusable single-stage-to-orbit spaceplane by the British company Reaction Engines Limited (Reaction), using SABRE, a combined-cycle, air-breathing rocket propulsion system. The vehicle design is for a hydrogen-fuelled aircraft that would take off from a specially built reinforced runway, and accelerate to Mach 5.4 at altitude (compared to typical airliner's ) using the atmosphere's oxygen before switching the engines to use the internal liquid oxygen (LOX) supply to take it into orbit. It could carry of cargo to an equatorial low Earth orbit (LEO); up to to the International Space Station, almost 45% more than the capacity of the European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle; or to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO), over 24% more than SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle in reusable mode (). The relatively light vehicle would then re-enter the atmosphere and land on a runway, being protected from the conditions of re-entry by a ceramic composite skin. When on the ground, it would undergo inspection and necessary maintenance, with a turnaround time of approximately two days, and be able to complete at least 200 orbital flights per vehicle. As work on the project has progressed, information has been published on a number of design versions, including A4, C1, C2, and D1. Testing of the key technologies was successfully completed in November 2012, allowing Skylon's design to advance from its research phase to a development phase. , the groundworks for an engine test facility have been completed at Westcott and current plans are for the plant to be completed and the first ground-based engine tests to begin in 2021, and SABRE engines could be performing uncrewed test flights in a "hypersonic testbed" (HTB) by 2025. In paper studies, the cost per kilogram (kg) of payload carried to LEO in this way is hoped to be reduced from the current £1,108/kg (), including research and development, to around £650/kg (718.16USD/Kg), with costs expected to fall much more over time after initial expenditures have amortised.

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Related concepts (7)

Skylon (spacecraft)

Private spaceflight

Private spaceflight refers to spaceflight developments that are not conducted by a government agency, such as NASA or ESA. During the early decades of the Space Age, the government space agencies of the Soviet Union and United States pioneered space technology in collaboration with affiliated design bureaus in the USSR and private companies in the US. They entirely funded both the development of new spaceflight technologies and the operational costs of spaceflight.

Single-stage-to-orbit

A single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) vehicle reaches orbit from the surface of a body using only propellants and fluids and without expending tanks, engines, or other major hardware. The term usually, but not exclusively, refers to reusable vehicles. To date, no Earth-launched SSTO launch vehicles have ever been flown; orbital launches from Earth have been performed by either fully or partially expendable multi-stage rockets. The main projected advantage of the SSTO concept is elimination of the hardware replacement inherent in expendable launch systems.