By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News
A revolutionary UK spaceplane concept has been boosted by the conclusions of an important technical review.
The proposed Skylon vehicle would do the job of a big rocket but operate like an airliner, taking off and landing at a conventional runway.
The European Space Agency’s propulsion experts have assessed the details of the concept and found no showstoppers.
The spaceplane’s “single-stage-to-orbit” operation and its re-usability that makes Skylon such an enticing prospect and one that could substantially reduce the cost of space activity, say its proponents.
The price for launching a kilogram of payload into a geostationary orbit – the location for today’s big telecoms satellites – is currently more than $15,000 (£9,000). Skylon’s re-usability could bring that down to less than $1,000, claims REL.
If the vehicle ever does go into full production, the investment required will probably be in the region of $9-12bn (), but the company will not be looking to government for that money.
“The government hasn’t got that sort of money and we want this project to be a privately financed one,” said Alan Bond, the managing director of REL.more at the BBC.