NewSpace Journal » Starchaser

EADS getting into the space tourism market?

Jeff Foust — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 11:35:17 +0000

An article in the Sunday Times of London reports that EADS Astrium will announce this week plans to provide suborbital space tourism services. The article is short on details, although EADS is apparently looking at a suborbital vehicle that would reach 100 kilometers altitude, with a per-ticket cost similar to Virgin Galactic’s going rate of $200,000. One possibility is that EADS will offer an air-launched solution using the freighter variant of the A380 super jumbo jet as the carrier aircraft, something reported back in April by Flightglobal.com and this month by Engineering News.

The Times article breathlessly claims that “Europe is to enter manned space travel for the first time” because of this project, but that’s a debatable claim. Even if EADS does go ahead with this venture, there are already ventures at least partially based in Europe that may get there first: besides Virgin Galactic (which eventually plans to operate out of Kiruna, Sweden), of course, there’s Starchaser, which is based in the UK although with growing operations in the US. There’s also ARCA, the Romanian effort that competed for the X Prize and continues work at some level; it even calls itself “The European Private Manned Space Program”. There have also been a number of other European proposals and studies in recent years. The advantage EADS has, though, is that it has financial resources that no one else save Virgin can bring to bear on this, if it chooses to do so.

Starchaser wins ESA deal

Jeff Foust — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 13:38:47 +0000

UK-based Starchaser Ltd. announced Friday that it has won a study contract from ESA. The award, worth €150,000 (US$194,000), will be used to perform a detailed technical assessment of Starchaser’s Thunderstar/Starchaser 5A suborbital vehicle. Starchaser hopes to have the vehicle ready to begin commercial operations from Spaceport America in New Mexico “as early as” 2009, although that might be overly optimistic, given the level of development and funding the company has disclosed to date.

The award was part of ESA’s Survey of European Privately-funded Vehicles for Commercial Human Spaceflight, announced in July 2006. At that time ESA said it planned to award up to three such contracts, although there’s been no announcement regarding whether any other European firms also won contracts.

Playing catchup

Jeff Foust — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 17:53:51 +0000

I’ve been too busy in the last week with other work to post here, so instead here are a few summaries of some recent developments in space tourism and related fields:

Flight International reported this week that the European Commission is considering funding a feasibility study for a “European version” of SpaceShipTwo. The €110,000 (US$145,000), 12-month study would look at the various issues associated with developing an air-launched suborbital passenger spacecraft similar to SS2 (but launched from an Airbus, of course; this is a European study, after all.) If this is the best that the EC and European industry can come up with, it’s hard to think that they’re that serious about suborbital space tourism: they’d be better off supporting existing European ventures, like ARCA in Romania or Starchaser, nominally based in the UK but with a presence in New Mexico.

Flight International also reports that plans by Virgin Galactic to built its New Mexico spaceport facilities underground have been changed by geologic studies that found that the bedrock at Spaceport America was unsuitable for their original plans. The spaceport design will still be environmentally friendly, Virgin officials said, including a dome that will collect what rainwater falls there and solar panels for generating power.

Space tourist, er, private space traveler Anousheh Ansari paid a visit to Huntsville last week, visiting the US Space and Rocket Center and speaking to Space Camp attendees there. She was accompanied by Homer Hickam of Rocket Boys fame, who had struck up an email correspondence with Ansari prior to her flight.Asked if Hickam might write about Ansari and her flight, he responded, “We may talk about that. It could happen.”

Potential space tourists in Kansas City, Jacksonville, and even Naples, Florida don’t have to go far to book a flight: travel agents in those cities are among the 45 in North America selected by Virgin Galactic to sell trips. The selected agents will have to under go “accreditation training” next year before beginning their five-year sales agreements.

A “Rocket City” in New Mexico? Maybe.

Jeff Foust — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 11:58:19 +0000

Starchaser Industries, the former British X Prize competitor with operations now in New Mexico, announced Thursday that it plans to create “Rocket City”, a 50-hectare facility about 30 kilometers west of Las Cruces on Interstate 10. The center will host Starchaser’s manufacturing facility and offices, as well as well as training and other tourist features, including “a space-themed hotel with conference facilities.” Or, as the company summarizes in its press release, “Starchaser’s Rocket City, located roughly 50 miles due south and well within striking distance of the Southwest Regional Spaceport, will be a high-tech theme park with an emphasis on science education and a 22nd century space age experience.” Twenty-second century?

The company estimates this to be a ten-year, $100-million project, although the company has already spent $50,000 on a study to identify the center’s location, and has purchased the I-10 frontage property where it will be located. Still, raising $100 million, on top of the money it will need for its sounding rocket and suborbital space tourism program, is bound to be a huge challenge, given the company hasn’t raised even a small fraction of that total to date. The Las Cruces Sun-News points out that Starchaser originally planned to set up operations in an industrial park owned by the city of Las Cruces, but “the project could never be finalized because city officials could not get financial statements and a business plan from Starchaser” as required by state law. So, a little skepticism about this project is certainly warranted here.