& reports space exploration all that matters your spaceflight manual spaceflight revolution news contact no menu assigned bristol spaceplanesleading the way to everyday spaceflight lowering the barriers to space travel bristol spaceplanes is in the lead promoting a straightforward way of slashing the cost of access to space . this is to build an airliner that can fly to orbit to replace today s missile like launchers that can fly only once . with our approach within 15 years many of you could afford a visit to a space hotel . the main obstacle is the power of traditional thinking . so you can help dent the mindset by asking questions and when you are satisfied with our answers spreading the message to friends and colleagues . in more detail space travel today is very expensive it costs a few tens of millions of pounds to send up an astronaut . this is because all launch vehicles to date have used large throwaway components based on ballistic missile technology . imagine how much motoring would cost if cars were scrapped after each journey it is clear that an airliner that could fly to orbit would transform this situation . it could provide an airline service to orbit and open up large new markets especially tourist visits to space hotels . what is less well known is that in the 1960s most big aircraft companies in europe and the usa studied spaceplanes in depth . there was a consensus that spaceplanes were the obvious next step and that they were just about feasible with the technology of the day . they were not developed then because of cold war pressures and the design teams were allowed to disband . today this knowledge has been largely forgotten and spaceplanes are not on the agendas of space agencies . the main obstacle now is the power of traditional thinking . the founder of bristol spaceplanes is one of the few involved in the 1960s spaceplane studies who is still active in the field . as a result we have been able to work up a highly competitive strategy for spaceplane development that leads to large new markets at low technical risk and with a very good return on investment . this involves a step by step development sequence of spaceplanes starting with a small suborbital one ascender and working up to a large orbital one spacebus . each design would help to dent the mindset improve the technology and gain the credibility needed to find the funding for the next one on the sequence . as soon as space agencies satellite operators and tourism companies take our proposals seriously they are likely to happen because the case is so strong . ours is the only coherent plan on offer for slashing the cost of access to space you can help by taking an interest . check our designs out below ascender ascender is a small sub orbital spaceplane designed to use existing technology and to pave the way for later vehicles on our development sequence . find out more spacecab spacecab is a fully reusable spaceplane designed to use only existing technology . it is in effect an enlarged and refined ascender . find out more spacebus spacebus bsp s second generation orbital spaceplane is a larger version of spacecab itself an evolution of ascender . find out more would you like a few days in a space hotel incredible as it may seem the main obstacle to your spaceflight is no more than and no less than the power of traditional thinking in the big space agencies . to help break this mould of thinking follow our blog and join our campaign when we launch it check out our blog more news there is a straightforward way of slashing the cost of access to space . this was widely studied some decades ago but never implemented because of the politics of the nasa budget . bristol spaceplanes limited is now the only company promoting it probably because the founder is one of the few involved in the 1960s studies who is still active in the field . read about this and more in our latest posts 4 facts about space travel you never knew ash phillips other rocket science no comments you don t have to be superfit or an astronaut to go into space . with space planes anyone could fly into space . the technology already exists to fly into space in fact it has been around what would it be like to go into space on the ascender ash phillips other rocket science no comments what would it actually be like to go into space on the ascender wonder no more as we ve described the ascender flight experience below travel to the airport to take your flight you ll need to uk government publishes spaceplane report ash phillips publications no comments the civil aviation authority has published a report uk government review of commercial spaceplane certification and operations which has very positive conclusions . eight specific spaceplane projects are described including the bristol spaceplanes ascender see a trip into space via the bristol spaceplanes archives bsp news investment no comments how bristol spaceplanes can disrupt spaceflight and how our ascender spaceplane will open up space tourism so that it s within reach of many more people about bristol spaceplanes developing the concepts that will get us into space more affordably . all publications space exploration all that matters your spaceflight manual spaceflight revolution media projects overview ascender spaceplane spacecab spacebus 2016 bristol spaceplanes . home our story projects ascender spacecab spacebus media cgi renderings and animations hardware shows and exhibitions reading books & reports space exploration all that matters your spaceflight manual spaceflight revolution news contact