News

Astrium Unveils New Space Vehicle

Pack up your bags you are going to space!  At Paris’ Le Bourget Airshow, Astrium unveiled its revolutionary new vehicle designed for space tourism. Astrium plans to have a vehicle, similar to that of a business jet, which would carry passengers 100km above the earth so they could get the enjoyment of 3 minutes worth of zero gravity.  Guests were allowed to see a mock up of the forward section and the designs for the cabin as part of the air show’s exhibit.

The Astrium vehicle would be designed to take off and land from a standard airport with the use of it’s jet engines.  But once it reaches a height of 12km it will then use it’s rockets to boast it up to a new height of over 60km in 80 seconds.  The vehicle seats have been designed to minimize the effects of the acceleration and deceleration so the passengers could enjoy the flight. The engines will then shut off and allow the vehicle to go the rest of the distance of just over 100km on the ships inertia.  Once at their target height the pilots would be able to control it’s location with thrusters that allow the passengers to experience the effects of zero gravity.  Then back to the earth and the total flight is expected to be only an hour and a half.

While gathering financing is still on going, it is expected that the commercial project will be ready with finalized designs and enough funding to begin in 2008 and with the first commercial flights beginning by 2012.  The total project is expected to cost one billion euros, and with ticket costs estimated to be around €150,000 to €200,00 per passenger.

Astrium’s design is seen as the beginning of possible rapid transit vehicles that allow ‘point-to-point’ transportation or even a quick entry into space, and it is also seen as a possible boast for the Europeans in core technologies of space transportation.