Spaceplane and hybrid launch vehicles – news and discussions

[wjfox]

A general thread for news and discussion on spaceplanes, lifting bodies, and other hybrid launch vehicles. Topics can include horizontal takeoff systems, air-breathing engines, winged reentry vehicles, and related concepts aiming to make space access more reusable and aircraft-like.

For updates relating specifically to Virgin Galactic, you may wish to use this thread:

Virgin Galatic

[weatheriscool]

Dawn Aerospace is selling spaceplanes direct to customers, like airliners
By David Szondy
June 01, 2025

https://newatlas.com/space/dawn-aerospa ... es-direct/
Dawn Aerospace seems to want to play with the big kids as it announces that it will be selling its spaceplane directly to customers the same way that airliner manufacturers market their aircraft, suggesting a major shift in space launch business models.

Currently, the space launch sector is pretty much a vertical affair. The company that builds and operates the rockets retains ownership of them and what is flown when is set by them. It's the way the business has been run since commercial payloads started launching in the 1960s, but that may soon change if Dawn Aerospace's plans are successful.

The current setup is rather as if Boeing and Airbus not only built airplanes but completely controlled all the freight and passenger traffic as well. That's somewhat similar to how railways have operated but rail companies work under what is called a natural monopoly. That is, having competing railways in an area is almost impossible because there are only so many routes to lay track on. However, if you look up at the sky, there aren't anything like tracks. It's like the oceans, the common property of humanity.

[Lilymoon]

After decades of dreams, a commercial spaceplane is almost ready to fly

LOUISVILLE, Colorado—The first Dream Chaser spaceplane built to go into orbit is starting to look the part. Its foldable wings and fuselage are covered in custom-fitted ceramic tiles to shield the spacecraft's composite structure from the scorching heat of atmospheric reentry as it flies back to Earth. It has its landing gear, and technicians buzz around the vehicle to add the finishing touches before it leaves the factory.

Inside the spacecraft, workers are installing the final ducts for the environmental control system, which will make the pressurized compartment within Dream Chaser livable for astronauts at the International Space Station. The Dream Chaser's job, at least for now, is to ferry cargo to and from the research complex orbiting some 240 miles (385 kilometers) above Earth. It will launch on top of a conventional rocket, maneuver in space like a satellite, and then land on a runway.

Across the hall from the production floor, Sierra Space has set up a mission control room, where engineers will monitor and command the spacecraft when it's in orbit. Down the hall, a mock-up is in place for astronauts to train on how to enter the Dream Chaser and pack and unpack cargo while it's docked at the station.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/11/a ... dy-to-fly/

Get ready for flights to space! $1.4bn Dream Chaser 'plane' will take cargo (and eventually humans) into orbit after passing final tests.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech ... tests.html

[Lilymoon]

What to know about Virgin Galactic's 1st mission taking paying customers to space

Virgin Galactic launched its first mission carrying paying customers on Thursday, weeks after the company's first flight.

Galactic 02 launched from Spaceport America in New Mexico at 9:00 a.m. MST (11:00 a.m. EST), according to a livestream.

The spaceflight company, founded by British businessman Richard Branson, is bringing six people to space aboard the VSS Unity, with three of them being regular civilians.

The mission also makes history with the first Olympian in space as well as the first Caribbean astronauts and the first mother-daughter duo in space.

Read more here https://abcnews.go.com/US/virgin-galact ... =102128933

[Lilymoon]

France's VORTEX spaceplane to land like a jet, operate like a shuttle



What will the orbital spacecraft of tomorrow look like? If Dassault Aviation has its way, it could be similar to its Véhicule Orbital Réutilisable de Transport et d’Exploration (VORTEX) reusable spaceplane unveiled at the recent Paris Air Show.

Just as fast-turnaround reusable rockets are migrating throughout the launch industry, so is the development of reusable orbital spacecraft for carrying passengers and cargo to and from Earth.

Intended to provide France and Europe with full sovereign access to space, VORTEX is designed to lift off atop a rocket without a fairing, have full orbital and atmospheric maneuverability, and land on a conventional runway. It's supposed to be completely reusable, with a large payload bay and is designed to be used for a wide variety of missions, including ferry work to space stations, acting as an autonomous orbital platform, servicing and recovering satellites, tending to refueling depots, and countering military threats.


https://newatlas.com/space/frances-vort ... a-shuttle/

[weatheriscool]

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Hypersonic SABRE engine reignited in Invictus Mach 5 spaceplane
By David Szondy
July 19, 2025

Proving that you can't keep a good technology down, Reaction Engines' Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine (SABRE) has a new lease on life after a British-led consortium announced Invictus, a new program to build a Mach 5+ spaceplane.

Sometimes you have to admire sheer perseverance when it comes to technological innovations.

In 1982, British Aerospace and Rolls-Royce teamed up to develop the Horizontal Take-Off and Landing (HOTOL) spaceplane that was intended to be a single-stage-to-orbit vehicle that could take off and land from a conventional runway and could breathe air for most of its flight to drastically cut down on weight.

The program generated a lot of enthusiasm in aerospace circles and a model was proudly displayed in the Science Museum in London. It even garnered a lot of official support from the British government. However, by 1987, Whitehall decided that the project was "over ambitious" and withdrew funding.

But that didn't stop Alan Bond, John Scott-Scott, and Richard Varvill from going private in 1989 and forming their own company, Reaction Engines Limited, to keep the idea alive and develop the key technologies of HOTOL in a new incarnation.

https://newatlas.com/space/reaction-eng ... s-program/

[Lilymoon]

Robotic spaceplane flies to edge of space to spy on the spysats



Who watches the watchmen and who spies on the spy satellites? It turns out it's an optical package called Morning Sparrow made by Scout Space and carried by Dawn Aerospace's Aurora spaceplane to the edge of space to snap low-orbit spysats.

It's still within living memory (for some of us) that having a single eye in the sky to monitor events back on Earth was regarded as a major accomplishment that only the major spacefaring powers could achieve. Today, there are so many satellites snapping pictures that it's like living in a goldfish bowl without the cute little castle with bubbles coming out of the tower.

Add to this, the increasing capabilities of the space launch sector combined with the plummeting costs of putting payloads into space has created a new form of satellite. Instead of a few set in relatively high stable orbits, the idea is to send up whole constellations of miniature satellites into very low Earth orbit at very short notice. In this way, it's possible to quickly respond to emergency situations by deploying satellites for not just surveillance, but communications, remote sensing, and battlefield networks before their orbits decay and they burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.

https://newatlas.com/space/dawn-aerospa ... ne-spysat/

[weatheriscool]

Venus Aerospace Hypersonic Engine Breakthroughs
August 18, 2025 by Brian Wang

Andrew Duggleby, co-founder and CTO of Venus Aerospace, discusses their groundbreaking propulsion technology. They have a ramjet integrated with a rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE) which they call the Venus Detonation Ramjet (VDR2). This will enable hypersonic flight (up to Mach 6-10) from conventional runways, with emphasis on efficiency, challenges, and innovations. It could also be used to massively boost the payload to space.

They use hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) mixed with fuel in the RDRE to achieve the detonation process.

Duggleby introduces Venus Aerospace’s unique approach to hypersonic propulsion, combining a traditional ramjet (for efficient high-speed cruising) with an RDRE (for high-thrust takeoff and acceleration). He contrasts this with conventional turbofan engines, noting that rockets and detonation-based systems are more efficient at supersonic and hypersonic speeds. The RDRE is described as a game-changer” ecause it uses a continuous detonation wave rather than steady combustion, leading to 15-30% better fuel efficiency and higher thrust in a compact design.

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2025/08/204933.html

[weatheriscool]

Dream Chaser to debut as free-flying spacecraft in 2026
By David Szondy
October 05, 2025

Sierra Space and NASA have renegotiated their contract for the Dream Chaser spaceplane that will allow the spacecraft to make its first orbital flight next year as a free flier instead of visiting the International Space Station (ISS).

The ISS is an outpost in space and like any outpost it needs to be resupplied on a regular basis in order to survive. Currently, the space lab is kept in freeze-dried shrimp cocktail and toilet paper by cargo ships from SpaceX and Northrop Grumman, but these were meant to be the first pair of a larger fleet of spacecraft that would regularly visit the station.

In 2016, NASA awarded a Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-2) contract to Sierra Space to be one of the second tranche of companies to run cargo missions to the ISS, using the Dream Chaser spaceplane and its Shooting Star disposable versions that can be burned up in the Earth's atmosphere for garbage disposal.

https://newatlas.com/space/dream-chaser ... -fly-free/

[weatheriscool]

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