The European aerospace giant EADS is space tourism co!

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Firm rockets into space tourism <br /> <br />The European aerospace giant EADS is going into the space tourism business. <br />Its Astrium division says it will build a space plane capable of carrying fare-paying passengers on a sub-orbital ride more than 100km above the planet. <br /><br />The vehicle, which will take off from a normal airport, will give the tourists a three-to-five-minute experience of weightlessness at the top of its climb. <br /><br />Tickets are expected to cost up to 200,000 euros (£135,000), with flights likely to begin in 2012. <br /><br /> There must be millions of people who have dreamt about this since they were little kids <br /><br />Marc Newson, designer <br />"We believe it is the will of human beings to visit space and we have to give them the possibility to do that," said Francois Auque, the CEO of Astrium. <br /><br />"Astrium is by far the largest space company in Europe, so we are very knowledgeable in all these matters. We believe our concept is extremely safe, extremely comfortable and cost effective," he told BBC News. <br /><br />Two in one <br /><br />EADS Astrium is the company that builds the Ariane rocket, which lofts most of the world's commercial satellites. Its space jet is a very different concept, however. <br /><br />The front end of a full-scale model was unveiled at a publicity event in Paris on Wednesday. From a certain angle, the vehicle resembles an ordinary executive aircraft - but its engineers claim it is in fact "revolutionary". <br /><br />The production model will use normal jet engines to take off and climb to 12km. From there, rocket engines will kick the vehicle straight up, taking it beyond 60km in just 80 seconds. By the time the rockets shut down, the craft should have sufficient velocity to carry it above 100km - into space. <br /><br />As the plane then begins to fall back to Earth, the pilot will use small thrusters to control its attitude, guiding the vehicle into the atmosphere from where it will use its jet engin <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

"There must be millions of people who have dreamt about this since they were little kids "<br /><br />I wonder how many of them have 200,000 euros to spare, since they state it will take a billion euros to develop <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[soyuztma]

Pictures and movies are available at the website of EADS astrium: EADS Astrium<br />There is also a brochure available.<br />The concept seems rather similar to the Rocketplane XP one. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[montmein69]

EADS press release :<br />http://www.astrium.eads.net/press-center/press-releases/astrium-rockets-into-space-tourism<br /><br />On a French website <br />http://www.lexpansion.com/art/4594.159102.0.html<br /><br />30% of 150 000 passengers (global market) is expected <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[dreada5]

Looks like everyone beat me to it! LOL <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br />Here's what I found:<br /><br />http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6749873.stm<br /><br />http://gallery.astrium.eads.net/scripts/atlasweb.dll/eadsdb/WebPage_ResultDisplayRunFirst?xSession_Id=fl4tY5TKUCWz3&xAction=OffersDisplay&xOffer_Id=ACCUEIL_INTERNET

 

[spacefire]

Small US entrepreneurs VS European Conglomerate. This new space race is bound to get hot! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>http://asteroid-invasion.blogspot.com</p><p>http://www.solvengineer.com/asteroid-invasion.html </p><p> </p> </div>

 

[ckikilwai]

Nice! A (suborbital) manned space program in Europe!<br />Maybe I can get a job there in the future <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br />or become the customer!

 

[scottb50]

Hopefully orbital flights will be available fairly soon and while they will be higher in price I can't imagine they would be more than double.<br /><br />Sub-orbital flights are just the side show to build interest in the main attraction. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[soyuztma]

A billion Euros for developing this spaceship is a lot more than Branson and others are planning to spend. So i'm rather skeptical they are going to find investors for this. About the only possibility i can see is that some gulf state who wants to develop their aerospace industry will sponsor this as some kind of prestige project.<br />EADS does have the advantage over US companies that they won't have trouble with ITAR. ITAR is going to be a big obstacle for US companies if they want to make flights from other countries or try selling their spaceships to foreign companies. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[scottb50]

ITAR is going to be a big obstacle for US companies if they want to make filghts from other countries or trey selling their spaceships to foreign companies.<br /><br />I don't understand why that should be a problem.<br /><br />Either way orbital capability will be here pretty quick and the sub-orbital market will dry up. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[dreada5]

Not before companies make a shed load of $$$ flying Joe Bloggs to the edge of space.

 

[docm]

Good as it validates the NewSpace paradigm.<br /><br />Now that EADS has jumped in can Boeing (or Lockheed) be far behind, if not on their own through a partnership with one of the current players?<br /><br />As for the cost: the more players the more competition, which tends to minimize end-user prices. Eventually the economics of scale settle in, except of course when we're talking Microsoft <img src="/images/icons/tongue.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>