April 2025
Catapult to orbit - will David finally defeat Goliath?
...where the first stage can be reliably retrieved and recycled for up to 20 additional launches. The second stage is still regarded as a disposable item, but a reusable first stage brings a precipitous reduction in costs. But what if we could do better...
August 2020
Scorpion – a study of the possible
... history of this and other advanced launcher projects shows that the realisation of a single-stage-to-orbit fully reusable launch system could easily have been achieved long before now - yet it remains a distant aspiration. However, proving...
06 January 2021
India lays out its space plans for the next 10 years
...next decade. A number of projects will be focused on, including the development of a heavy lift launch vehicle, advanced green and electric propulsion, a reusable launch vehicle as well as advanced space science missions, say ISRO. With the expansion...
September 2021
Near space - the air-space boundary question, astronauts and space tourism
...Among other things, the pressurised crew capsule and its reusable launch vehicle made headlines for carrying both the oldest and ... on such flights will be considered astronauts. First human launch for Blue Origin’s New Shepard. Astronaut wings Part of...
November 2017
Reusable air-launch and the space access paradigm
...experience includes the Columbus/ISS project and the Cassini/Huygens mission. David has a keen interest in reusable launch vehicles, having worked as a propulsion engineer at Rolls-Royce and then as a system engineer at British Aerospace on the HoToL...
October 2015
Japan’s H-IIA rocket: beautiful, accurate, and on-time
...and stringent requirements for easy access to space. Japan is engaged in practical research to generate a reusable sounding rocket as a precursor to a fully reusable launch system. Key goals for this research are to establish a process for the design...
