references to primary sources . please improve this by adding secondary or tertiary sources . june 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message bristol spaceplanes ltd. type private industry aerospace founded 1991 key people david ashford managing director products space tourism spaceplanes website http www.bristolspaceplanes.com bristol spaceplanes bsp is a british aerospace company based in bristol england who have designed a number of spaceplanes with sub orbital and orbital capabilities . the company s stated goal is to realise low cost access to space 1 primarily through reusable launch vehicles claiming the cost of human space travel has the potential to be reduced by a factor of 1 000 . 2 contents 1 history 2 conceptual vehicles and spacecraft 2.1 ascender 2.2 spacecab 2.3 spacebus 3 see also 4 references history edit the company was founded in 1991 by david ashford and has received three feasibility grants in 1993 2003 and 2011 for the ascender and spacecab projects . 1 a scaled down radio controlled version of the ascender spaceplane was successfully flown in 1998 . in the early 2000s bristol spaceplanes limited was an unsuccessful entrant in the ansari x prize competition to be the first private manned spaceflight vehicle to launch and relaunch in a week losing out to mojave aerospace ventures tier one combo of spaceshipone and whiteknightone . 3 in september 2014 the firm launched a crowdfunding campaign to aid in the development of ascender aiming to raise 150 000 . 4 5 needs update in late 2014 the company was conducting bench testing of rocket engine designs for ascender and is seeking funding to build a working model via crowdfunding . 6 throughout the lifetime of the company david ashford has released a number of published books and papers based around the aerospace industry and the exploration of space . 7 8 9 conceptual vehicles and spacecraft edit ascender edit ascender is a proposed small two seater suborbital horizontal takeoff horizontal landing hthl jet and rocket powered spaceplane concept which is designed to be able to achieve altitudes of up to 100 kilometres 62 mi via a steep sub orbital trajectory . 10 this would allow it to be used for space tourism activity as well as microgravity research during the two minutes of weightlessness . the vehicle would take off when from a typical runway using its two turbofan jet engines and climb to cruising altitudes . it would then switch to its hydrogen peroxide rocket engine and climb past 80 kilometres 50 mi and then would reenter the atmosphere and glide back to the runway it took off from using its jet engines to maneuver . the majority of attention and energy of the company has been focused on the ascender launcher due to its short term feasibility compared to the other projects . it has been designed to not require any new materials or unproven components . 10 spacecab edit the spacecab spaceplane design concept consists of a large crewed carrier aircraft with a smaller orbiter attached on top both of which are derived from ascender . the carrier would take off from an airstrip and use its turbofan engines to accelerate to mach 2 at which point it would switch over to its lox kerosene rocket engines to accelerate to mach 4 . the orbiter craft would then detach and accelerate to orbital speeds and altitudes using its lox lh2 rocket . it would be capable of delivering up to 750 kg to low earth orbit and also transporting supplies and crew to the international space station an increasingly important capability following the retirement of the space shuttle . spacecab can be thought of as the intermediate next step in development between ascender and spacebus and like ascender it does not require any new technology or materials and has been the subject of a 1994 feasibility study confirming this claim . 11 spacebus edit the spacebus spaceplane concept is the largest most ambitious costly and difficult project proposed by the company . it has a similar but scaled up design to spacecab with a carrier craft accelerating up to mach 4 with ramjet engines and then up to mach 6 with rocket engines . the smaller orbiter would then detach and accelerate into orbit with lox lh2 rocket engines with a payload of up to 5000 kg or 50 passengers . despite requiring a new ramjet design and significant developments with the heatshield rocket engines hydrogen fuel system and transparencies spacebus is still claimed to be considerably more feasible and cheaper than other ongoing spaceplane projects such as skylon . 12 see also edit lynx spaceplane a competitive two person spaceplane to ascender that is currently under development with first flight scheduled for 2015 2016 . references edit a b bristol spaceplanes company information . bristol spaceplanes . 2014 . retrieved 11 september 2014 . bristol spaceplanes joins tourism race . the financial times . 2014 . retrieved 11 september 2014 . ansari x prize teams . x prize foundation . 2014 . the market for bristol spaceplanes . bristol spaceplanes . 2014 . retrieved 11 september 2014 . bristol firm enters commercial space race daily telegraph 23 february 2014 bristol spaceplanes crowdfunder . retrieved 19 december 2014 . space exploration all that matters . bristol spaceplanes . 2014 . retrieved 11 september 2014 . spaceflight revolution . bristol spaceplanes . 2014 . retrieved 11 september 2014 . your spaceflight manual . bristol spaceplanes . 2014 . retrieved 11 september 2014 . a b ascender project specifications . bristol spaceplanes . 2014 . retrieved 11 september 2014 . spacecab project specifications . bristol spaceplanes . 2014 . retrieved 11 september 2014 . spacebus project specifications . bristol spaceplanes . 2014 . retrieved 11 september 2014 . v t e aerospace industry in the united kingdom economy of the united kingdom manufacturing in the united kingdom companies current ad aerospace agustawestland airbus uk astrium satellites surrey satellite technology bae systems bae systems integrated system technologies bae systems military air solutions eurofighter gmbh 33 % mbda 37.5 % bba aviation boeing defence uk british airways engineering britten norman chemring group cobham cobham technical services euravia ge aviation systems gfs projects gkn hants and sussex aviation hybrid air vehicles irvin gq lindstrand technologies lockheed martin uk marshall aerospace martin baker meggitt messier bugatti dowty qinetiq reaction engines rolls royce selex es short brothers telespazio vega thales air defence thales optronics ultra electronics defunct adc aircraft ajep abbott baynes sailplanes abc motors air navigation and engineering company airco the airscrew company airship industries airspeed armstrong whitworth aircraft arrow aircraft auster austin motor company aviation traders avro beagle aircraft william beardmore and company blackburn aircraft boulton & paul boulton paul aircraft bristol aeroplane company british aerial transport british aerospace british aircraft company british aircraft corporation british aircraft manufacturing btr aerospace central aircraft company chilton aircraft chrislea aircraft clayton & shuttleworth comper aircraft company cunliffe owen aircraft dart aircraft de havilland de havilland aeronautical technical school de havilland propellers desoutter aircraft company dowty group dowty rotol dunlop standard aerospace e. d. abbott edgar percival aircraft elliotts of newbury english electric fairey aviation company fane aircraft company ferranti folland aircraft foster wikner aircraft garland aircraft company general aircraft general electric company gloster aircraft company grahame white handley page hawker aircraft hawker siddeley heston aircraft company hewlett & blondeau hordern richmond hunting aircraft lakes flying company luton aircraft m. b. arpin & co. marconi company marconi electronic systems martinsyde matra marconi space miles aircraft moss brothers aircraft d. napier & son nash & thomson national aircraft factory no. 2 nieuport & general aircraft norman thompson flight company parnall parnall & sons port victoria marine experimental aircraft depot lang propellers reid and sigrist rollason aircraft and engines royal aircraft establishment saunders roe scottish aviation seaplane experimental station selex galileo selex sistemi integrati siddeley deasy sopwith aviation company spartan aircraft supermarine vickers vickers armstrongs westland aircraft westland helicopters j. samuel white government and regulatory bodies civil aviation authority defence electronics and components agency defence science and technology laboratory european aviation safety agency related topics ads group aircraft manufactured in the united kingdom air international air service training british aerospace engineers farnborough airshow flight international key publishing nats holdings ndi uk parcaberporth royal aeronautical society society of british aerospace companies category v t e reusable launch systems partially reusable active falcon 9 full thrust in development adeline engine pack for ariane 6 baikal booster for angara falcon heavy new glenn rlv vulcan retired buran space shuttle cancelled ares i ares v falcon 1e liquid fly back booster maks phoenix hopper reusable booster system saturn shuttle completely reusable active new shepard spaceshiptwo in development its launch vehicle skylon soar sura uk retired spaceshipone x 15 cancelled avatar energia ii uragan goodyear meteor junior hotol k 1 lynx roton spaceshipthree venturestar x 30 nasp x 33 italics indicates suborbital launch systems reusability currently in development v t e ansari x prize x prize foundation competitors armadillo aerospace arca space corporation bristol spaceplanes canadian arrow da vinci project interorbital systems mojave aerospace ventures space transport corporation winner mojave aerospace ventures scaled composites burt rutan vulcan inc. paul allen tier one spaceshipone x flight 1 x flight 2 white knight one brian binnie mike melvill peter siebold people amir ansari anousheh ansari peter diamandis related virgin galactic the spaceship company tier 1b white knight two spaceshiptwo x prize cup xcor ez rocket rocket racing league indicates winning team retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title bristol spaceplanes & oldid 731810870 categories aerospace companies of the united kingdomcommercial spaceflightspace programme of the united kingdomansari x prizehidden categories articles lacking reliable references from june 2015all articles lacking reliable referencesuse dmy dates from march 2015use british english from march 2015wikipedia articles in need of updating from june 2015vague or ambiguous time from june 2015interlanguage link template link number navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured 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