Space Planes

The dream of most space advocates is likely a vehicle that can take off from a runway like a plane, fly to Earth orbit where it would operate like a spacecraft, and ultimately land on a runway. A space plane. A fleet of such vehicles-- or several commercial fleets-- would finally throw space wide open to commercial development and exploration. Government-owned space planes could also perform many tasks, from intelligence gathering to rapid deployment of forces to actually attacking an enemy.

Several efforts to build such craft are currently underway. Among those is one by Italy. Perhaps later this month, an Italian group will drop a prototype model of a space plane from a high altitude balloon and test how well it can actually fly-- maneuver-- at hypersonic speeds. It's an aspect of these future sleek ships that is often taken for granted, yet it is clearly of real importance. Being able to actually fly in the atmosphere will allow space planes to avoid bad weather, use alternative airports, etc.