Bristol space planes

Just had this Email from David Ashford:

Bristol Spaceplanes Limited will be on the West of England Aerospace Forum
stand at the Farnborough Air Show from July 19 to 23. You are most welcome
to visit me there. Please invite any colleagues who might be interested.

David Ashford

--
Bristol Spaceplanes Ltd.
bsp-announce-request@bristolspaceplanes.com


Anyone going?

Are they going to build anything or just take a load of pictures they have mocked up on the computer? I work alongside Filton runway and I haven't seen any spaceplanes flying off yet... I hope they get something together, the concept is, I believe, correct for the long-term space tourism industry. (And I want to see a West Country astronaut!! "Brizzol, we moight be 'avin a praaablem 'ere")

I really like the Brsitol Spaceplanes Ascender concept. Unfortunately, it ain't going to happen, because it is just too expensive - around $60M needed and there is no millionnaire in sight. The company is putting some effort into a "Liquid hydrogen demonstrator" rocket which will have a pressurized engine running on LH2 and LOX, with an apogee of around 20km. This would be followed by a sounding rocket using similar technology, but with turbo-pumps. The Demo costs around $25,000 to build but it goes nowhere useful and so is, in the commercial sense, a dead end. The sounding rocket could make money, but is expensive compared with what could be done with solid rocket motors. This is a project for millionnaires only, which is why I decided to buy a piece of Space Transport Corporation, who are building an X-Prize rocket for $22,000 and the whole project only needs $500,000, of which they have now raised around half.

It seems that Bristol Space Planes is doing something at last. Heres an article which seems to say that they are planning to launch from Malaysia in a few years time.

http://thestar.com.my/news/nastory.asp? ... sec=nation

I hope they make, I think they have a good concept.[/url]

Interesting! Maybe the Malaysia Government will advance him the cash to start to build it. That would be a remarkably forward-thinking thing for any government to do. I hope he does pull it off.

I hope he manages to get Ascender to fly but to be honest there's been nothing posted on their website and the news article I posted was the first thing I've seen for a long time.

The website seems to be more concerned with selling David Ashford's latest book than getting anything into space.

Its a shame because I thought it was a really promising idea that could have been a real contender for the X-prize but like you said the attached price tag was to steep for it to succede.

Hello, Andy Hill,

might the possibility that ESA assists and awards space tourism in the nearby future give Birstol Spaceplanes a push towards a real vehicle? This possibility has been reported in the recent entry under LiveScienceBlogs .



Dipl.-Volkswirt (bdvb) Augustin (Political Economist)

Hello Ekkehard, I look in on their website from time to time and am dissappointed to say that nothing appears to be happening. My guess would be that ESA would not take them seriously as they have virtually no track record of building hardware. Lots of people around with promising ideas but the industry is filled with so much hype if I was ESA I'd want to invest with a company actually producing something, like Starchaser perhaps.

Bristol Spaceplanes is still, I can tell you, actively seeking finance, but it has been trying to do that for too long in my estimation. Also, the Ascender is not appropriate for the emerging space tourism industry. It was put up for the X-prize as a one-pilot plus the weight of two passengers, and what is now needed is a craft with two pilots and three to six or more passengers, preferably in a wide-bodied cabin with a panoramic view and plenty of space to experience zero-g, if onyl for a couple of minutes. A cramped cockpit and one pilot just won't cut it.