Eads Shows Off Europe’s New Space Plane

THERE had to be someway to get out of here:

PARIS - Europe’s biggest aerospace company, EADS, has concluded that carrying wealthy tourists to 100 kilometers in altitude for several minutes of weightlessness could be a multibillion-dollar industry in 20 years and is seeking co-investors to build a rocket plane it already has designed.

EADS’s Astrium division, prime contractor for Ariane 5 rockets and for Europe’s contribution to the international space station, said a group of its engineers has spent two years quietly designing a vehicle that looks like a business jet with exceptionally long wings and a rocket engine powered by liquid methane and liquid oxygen.

Anorak

Posted: 14th, June 2007 | In: Twitterings Comment | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink