Britain in Space
SKYLON
The Skylon spaceplane places a satellite in orbit. Picture courtesy of
Adrian Mann
.
In the early 1990s, some of the personnel from the HOTOL project founded a new company - Reaction Engines Ltd - in order to continue work on the design. This resulted in Skylon, a new spaceplane design which improves on that of HOTOL.
Reaction Engines were not allowed to use the HOTOL RB454 engines, as they were still classified TOP SECRET. A new engine was designed and called SABRE (Synergic Air Breathing Engine). These engines would use Liquid Hydrogen and air until Skylon reached Mach 5.5, then switch to an onboard supply of Liquid Oxygen for the final ascent to orbit.
Skylon would be constructed from Carbon Fibre, with aluminium fuel tanks and a ceramic "aeroshell" to protect the craft from the heat of re-entry. A payload bay measuring 12.3 x 4.6 meters would allow the payload to use standard air transport containers, increasing ease of use. Skylon could take 12 tonnes of payload to an Equatorial Orbit, or 9.5 tonnes to the International Space Station.
Unlike many other projects, Skylon is designed to be operated by commercial companies rather than Government space agencies. This has resulted in a design similar to that of a normal aircraft, to allow a turnaround of only 2 days between flights, rather than several weeks, as with the Space Shuttle. Operating on a commercial basis could also reduce the price of launches from $150 Million for a 2-3 tonne satellite to $10 Million for all cargo. Eventually, costs could fall to allow a passenger seat to cost only $100,000, opening the way for space tourism.
Reaction Engines envisage that by 2025 there could be several companies operating Skylons from specially constructed equatorial spaceports. In 1997 Skylon was considered by ESA for the FESTP (Future European Space Transportation Project). More recently, it has been suggested that Skylon could win the X-Prize, a sum of $10 Million for the first team to send a passenger into space.
Reaction engines have recently been attempting to put together a consortium of aerospace companies to fund the Skylon project. In 1992 the total development cost of Skylon was estimated at $10 Billion.
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