- Reaction score
- 1,678
London (CNN) -- NASA's space shuttle Discovery has completed its final mission, with Endeavour and Atlantis following it into retirement later this year.
It marks the end of a historic chapter in space travel, but a new one might not be light years away if a groundbreaking design for a fully reusable spacecraft can get off the ground.
"Skylon" may only be at the concept stage but it could usher in a new era of space exploration and discovery, says its UK-based designers, Reaction Engines Ltd.
Key to the Skylon proposal is a hydrogen fuel-powered rocket engine called SABRE (Synergistic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine) designed by the company's managing director Alan Bond.
SABRE, which Bond first described back in the early 1980s, is a "combined cycle rocket engine with two operational modes."
Mark Hempsell, future programs director at Reaction Engines Ltd, said: "The engine starts by burning hydrogen with air and finishes up burning hydrogen with liquid oxygen like a shuttle engine."
Source.
It marks the end of a historic chapter in space travel, but a new one might not be light years away if a groundbreaking design for a fully reusable spacecraft can get off the ground.
"Skylon" may only be at the concept stage but it could usher in a new era of space exploration and discovery, says its UK-based designers, Reaction Engines Ltd.
Key to the Skylon proposal is a hydrogen fuel-powered rocket engine called SABRE (Synergistic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine) designed by the company's managing director Alan Bond.
SABRE, which Bond first described back in the early 1980s, is a "combined cycle rocket engine with two operational modes."
Mark Hempsell, future programs director at Reaction Engines Ltd, said: "The engine starts by burning hydrogen with air and finishes up burning hydrogen with liquid oxygen like a shuttle engine."
Source.
