Spaceflight Revolution

A revolution inspaceflight is likely soon with the prospect of everyday access toorbit within fifteen years. Costly ballistic missiles used to launchvehicles will be replaced by 'spaceplanes, ' using technology thatexists today. In five years' time, a prototype could be built, andwith a further ten years of detailed development, the design couldapproach airliner maturity, reducing the cost of sending people intospace some one thousand times to around US$20,000.

Spaceplanedevelopment has, in effect, been suppressed by entrenched thinkingand short-term vested interests. But the present monopoly of largegovernment space agencies is becoming unsupportable, and the marketthat understands the very real opportunities for space travel will bereaching critical mass in the near future.

This bookexamines these issues and shows why space tourism will one day becomethe single largest business in space, and how astronomy will betransformed by low-cost access making practicable instruments ordersof magnitude larger than those today.