Reflections on Conditions for Commericail Air-launched Suborbital Flight in Europe - Selected Results of a Study Funded by the European Community (EC)

Abstract

The achievements of Scaled Composites with their SpaceShipOne (SS1) flights in 2004 in the frame of the Ansari X-Prize competition led the authors to propose an EC study to look into corresponding capabilities and opportunities for suborbital flight in Europe. This study confirmed that space tourism is the major commercial driver for suborbital ballistic flight, as long as the corresponding costs cannot be reduced substantially. The study considered a variety of issues to conclude that technical show stoppers to achieve suborbital flight in Europe do not exist, assuming the composite configuration of an Airbus as carrier plane and a winged space plane as suborbital vehicle. A major stumbling block, in addition to the funding issues, remains with legal issues and to achieve permission to fly such vehicles in Europe