Swiss Space Systems (S3)

[Creative]

A Swiss company has unveiled an ambitious plan to build a privately built robotic rocket plane by 2017 in order launch satellites into orbit. The company Swiss Space Systems (S3) plans to loft the unmanned suborbital shuttle from the back of an Airbus A300 jetliner to serve as a commercial satellite launch platform. The Payerne, Switzerland-based firm unveiled the satellite launch concept on March 13 and is expected to reveal the supplier of its shuttle rocket engine in April.

http://www.space.com/20449-swiss-private-rocket-plane-2017.html?cmpid=514630

 

[blackstar]

A Swiss company has unveiled an ambitious plan to build a privately built robotic rocket plane by 2017 in order launch satellites into orbit. The company Swiss Space Systems (S3) plans to loft the unmanned suborbital shuttle from the back of an Airbus A300 jetliner to serve as a commercial satellite launch platform. The Payerne, Switzerland-based firm unveiled the satellite launch concept on March 13 and is expected to reveal the supplier of its shuttle rocket engine in April.

http://www.space.com/20449-swiss-private-rocket-plane-2017.html?cmpid=514630

Gotta give them credit: it's the coolest paint job of any proposed space project I've seen.

 

[Michel Van]

interesting is, that the three stage concept is not new
it's french Dassault Aviation - Vehra, here in a ultra sub zero cool Paint-job....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghlIkp2M4t4

 

[Hobbes]

Interesting concept, but why would they want to develop a space port? The nice thing about launching from the back of an aircraft is that you can just take off from any airport.

 

[Michel Van]

Interesting concept, but why would they want to develop a space port? The nice thing about launching from the back of an aircraft is that you can just take off from any airport.

over Regulation...
or like a German bureaucrat would say "A Airport iz for ze Aircraft, not for ze launch of Spacecrafts!"

 

[blackstar]

Interesting concept, but why would they want to develop a space port? The nice thing about launching from the back of an aircraft is that you can just take off from any airport.

I'm committing one of the sins that I don't like and not reading the source information before responding. But there's more to this system than just an airplane with something on top. They're going to need some specialized equipment for:

-payload handling (integration, fueling, checkout)
-spaceplane handling
-putting the spaceplane on top of the plane

So they're going to need a few buildings and necessary equipment. They could call that a "spaceport" and maybe even get cool prizes like tax benefits in the process.

 

[archipeppe]

In 1986 I remember a well publicized image of an Hermes spaceplane atop an Airbus A300, nothing new under the Sun.....

 

[Michel Van]

In 1986 I remember a well publicized image of an Hermes spaceplane atop an Airbus A300, nothing new under the Sun.....

Was that not the first proposal of french Dassault Aviation, against German Sanger II concept ?

 

[archipeppe]

In 1986 I remember a well publicized image of an Hermes spaceplane atop an Airbus A300, nothing new under the Sun.....

Was that not the first proposal of french Dassault Aviation, against German Sanger II concept ?

Nope Michel, it was only a way to carry the Hermes from Toulouse to Kourou and back.


In any case I found out the image in my archive.

 

[archipeppe]

A small note about the above image, it represents the Aerospatiale proposal for Hermes while the choose one was that came from Dassault Aviation.


Major differences came from tail design, while Aerospatiale Hermes had a huge tail with winglets on wing extremity the Dassault design had only oversized winglets but not tail at all.
Furthermore Aerospatiale Hermes has no OMS pod while the Dassault design had them as the U.S. Shuttle.

 

[Matej]

Its nice to see another spaceplane concept from Europe, but I would like to see budget and resources rather than supplier of the rocket engine.

 

[Matej]

Press release from Dassault

http://www.dassault-aviation.com/fr/aviation/presse/press-kits/2013/dassault-aviation-et-le-projet-s3.html

And official website: http://www.s-3.ch/

Main sponsor is Breitling

 

[Michel Van]

here there S3 Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sLx6VH9EVU


Again for comparison VEHRA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghlIkp2M4t4


be free to find the difference ;D


but in concept is still the problem that second stage could hit the Airbus tail unit...

 

[Creative]

http://www.space.com/21629-swiss-private-rocket-plane-evolution.html?cmpid=514630

PARIS — A startup Swiss spaceflight company is planning to upgrade its proposed private satellite launch system into a manned suborbital space shuttle for science missions, the company announced Monday (June 17). The company Swiss Space Systems (S3) has no immediate plans to enter the space tourism market, but does see a market for low-cost microgravity research flights that may be more attractive to researchers than launching experiments on satellites or to the International Space Station, the company's founder and CEO Pascal Jaussi said.

Swiss Space Systems officially formed in March, when it unveiled a concept to deploy small satellites from an air-launched — but unmanned — Suborbital Aircraft Reusable shuttle (SOAR) designed to launch from the top of a modified Airbus A300 jumbo jet. [How S3's SOAR Rocket Plane Will Fly (Photos)]

On Monday, the Payerne, Switzerland-based company unveiled an expansion of those space plane plans at the Paris Air Show here. The announcement included an agreement with veteran aerospace company Thales Alenia Space to begin work on a pressurized compartment on the SOAR shuttle to house experiments and crewmembers on future flights.

 

[RGClark]

interesting is, that the three stage concept is not new
it's french Dassault Aviation - Vehra, here in a ultra sub zero cool Paint-job....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghlIkp2M4t4

Thanks for that. I didn't know it was essentially the Vehra suborbital vehicle.

Bob Clark