Alternate Shuttle

Wired News reported A new spacecraft has been successfully dropped off a launch jet into a vertical, midair blastoff position, an important innovation that could simplify future space launches. Transformational Space, or tSpace, successfully tested its new spacecraft over California's Mojave Desert earlier this week -- dropping a 23 percent scale model of its rocket and crew capsule from a high-altitude jet. The mockup dropped from the carrier plane into a vertical launch position without the use of wings. Rather than firing a rocket engine, the unmanned craft fell to Earth. But it performed exactly as computer models predicted, proving the viability of a new method for air-launching spacecraft. The test establishes tSpace as a serious contender in the effort to build a replacement for NASA's aging fleet of space shuttles. Although founded only last year, tSpace has already secured $6 million from NASA to flesh out concepts for the new spaceship, called the Crew Transfer Vehicle, or CXV, and test its viability with working hardware. The test was conducted by tSpace contractor Scaled Composites, the small aerospace firm that also built and flew SpaceShipOne, which last year blasted the first privately financed astronaut, Mike Melvill, out of the atmosphere. Until now, air-launched spacecraft, including SpaceShipOne, have depended on wings to pitch up from their horizontal drop position to the vertical orientation needed to reach space. But wings add weight and complexity to the vehicles, and also an element of danger. Since their rocket motors fire while they are horizontal, they risk catching up to and colliding with their comparatively slow-moving carrier planes. The CXV and attached rocket booster, which will be four times larger than the mockups used in the drop tests, will pitch up through the simple mechanical action of hanging on to the carrier plane with its nose for a half-second longer than the booster's body. It was this action that was successfully demonstrated Tuesday. To see other photos click here