Air-Attack.com - ESA Phoenix, European Space Shuttle

Phoenix is designed to be more economical than todays space vehicles and even reliable for manned space operations.
For conventional rockets, like the Ariane, the costs to launch 1 kilogram of payload weight into orbit can be up to $25.000 (per kilo).
In the first few decades of the 21st century, it will be the first independent manned European non-military attempt at space operations and will be an important part of the ISS project. (Compare Vostok 1.)
It is anticipated that the production craft will enter use between 2015 and 2020.

Phoenix is part of the German national program ASTRA, a $40 million project founded by the German Federal Goverment, EADS Space Transportation and the State of Bremen with one third each.
Both EADS and the State of Bremen have already invested another $8.2 million respective $4.3 million out of own funds. Another contribution of 16 million euros comes from partner companies such as the Bremen-based OHB, DLR and the Federal Ministry for Education and Research.

EADS is responsible for the project management and for the entire software equipment of the system. Other partner companies are also involved in the development.

The Phoenix RLV prototype is 6.9 meters long (23'), has a weight of 1,200 kilograms (2,640 lbs), and a wingspan of 3.9 meters (13').
The prototype, at one seventh the size of the planned vehicle, is still in the alpha stage of development at Bremen labs of EADS.

On Saturday 8 May 2004 the prototype was dropped from 2.4 kilometers (8,000 feet) by a helicopter and landed precisely and without incident after a GPS-guided 90-second glide.
The test was conducted at the North European Aerospace Test range in Kiruna, 1,240 km (770 miles) north of Stockholm, Sweden. Future tests will involve drops from higher altitude, possibly from a balloon.

The primary aim of the test was to assess the glider potential of the craft. The final version of the vehicle must be able to glide from an altitude of 129 kilometers (80 miles).

Recent developments:

Oct. 14th, 2005 | Russia asks JAXA to help develop Clipper Spaceship

Russia has asked Japan's space development agency to participate in its new Kliper spacecraft development program, agency officials said Thursday. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has started collecting information on the program and will decide by year's end whether to accept the request, the officials said. Senior agency official Kiyoshi Higuchi hinted that the agency is willing to participate in the basic development plan, which will start in January. The European Space ...
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Sep. 28th, 2005 | Plans for Euro-Russian spaceplane

The European Space Agency (Esa) is proposing joining forces with Russia to develop a new vehicle for human spaceflight, the Clipper. The six-person spaceplane would give European astronauts autonomous access to the space station and the Moon. Esa will ask its member states to fund a 30-40m-euro (£20-27m) preparatory study at its next ministerial meeting. Russia is planning to replace its ageing Soyuz capsule with the Clipper and is seeking international partners. The Soyuz has be...
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Aug. 1st, 2005 | NASAs New CEV Launcher to Maximize Use of Space Shuttle Components

The decision on what new launch vehicles NASA plans to use in the coming decades is rapidly coming into focus. In some ways these launchers will be new - yet they will also look very familiar using hardware and concepts that have long and well-established flight histories. Analysts have reviewed a wide variety of launch vehicle options for both manned and cargo-only versions of the NASA Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) and have settled for an all-solid booster configuration, according to sourc...
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Jun. 6th, 2005 | NASA Wants a Shuttle-derived Launch Vehicle

According to NASA sources, the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate has recommended (internally) that NASA pursue development of a heavy lift launch system based, in part, on the current Space Shuttle. Such a Shuttle-derived Launch Vehicle (SDLV) would be capable of placing 80-100 metric tons of payload into Low Earth Orbit (LEO). NASA is expected to formally reveal its SDLV plans in the first week of July.
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Nov. 10th, 2004 | (B)old new frontiers - plan for shuttle replacement

Northrop Grumman Corp. and Boeing Co. yesterday announced plans to team up to design a vehicle to take astronauts back to the moon and even beyond, but they've got to make one stop first - an off-white cinderblock building in Bethpage known as the Grumman History Center. [...] John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a space research organization in Washington, D.C., said he had serious doubts the project would materialize. "Everybody is standing up and saluting the president's bold visi...
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Headlines of May 15th, 2008 »

Sources & Recommended Websites:

Astronews.com (in German)
ESA.int (in German)
German aeronautics and space agency (in German)
Space.com story
PDF: The New Way Into Space

This page was last updated on: 2006-02-01