I think space jet, the holding name EADS gives its single-stage-to-suborbit spaceplane, is a total PR stunt and I don’t think it will go anywhere.

One EADS PR official told me last year that he warned his management that it would be seen as a PR stunt – he claimed it is a genuine effort but it was unveiled at the same time as EADS Space rebranded itself as Astrium

But Astrium’s space jet team has not been involved in any of the EU or ESA space tourism related projects and they gave themselves a ludicrous development price tag of €1 billion and said they would raise the money privately. Well that won’t happen in this financial climate.

Astrium also said that it would in time rename space jet but nothing has been done so far and they have not approached a potential user, as Astrium would not operate the spaceline service itself

I got to speak to space jet’s programme manager at Christoph Chavagnac at the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety annual conference held in Rome last year (www.iaass.org) and he declined an interview and said they would not talk about space jet until it was rolled out!

Interestingly at the IAASS event the organisation’s president space safety expert Tommaso Sgobba offered IAASS’ services for free to the space jet team for an independent safety evaluation and Chavagnac looked embarressed when he declined that offer.

I think Rocketplane has a better chance of making it happen then Astrium.

Rob.