Space tourism by EADS

[hektor]

http://www.lepoint.fr/content/confidentiels/article.html?id=186501
 

[SIM city]

A few years back they had an a concept that they were pitching for parabolic flights.  They were going to tack a seating cabin onto a MiG 25 and call it ... I'm not kidding ... the MiGBus Spacecoaster.  They pitched to ESA, but it died when the guy behind it retired.  Any idea if this is the same thing resurfacing or something different?

[hektor]

Interesting... is there a reference somewhere about this MiGBus ?

[hektor]

Here is a google translation of the article

You already dreamed to bring you closer stars…” It is the topic of the organized evening on June 13 by François Auque, chairman of Astrium, the space subsidiary company of EADS, during which he should announce, on June 13, his decision to launch out in space tourism. With the nose and the beard of the German shareholders who would not be well-informed.

[Zond]

hektor - 7/6/2007  3:20 PM
With the nose and the beard of the German shareholders who would not be well-informed.

I can't figure out the meaning of this sentence. Does this mean he's doing this without shareholder approval? Or that the germans shareholders aren't big fans of this project? Or just some comment on french-german rivalry?

[hektor]

Maybe another instance of the German - French rivalry over Airbus...

More seriously, what chances do you see for EADS vs. SS2 or Rocketplane ?

[SIM city]

http://www.ato.ru/eng/cis/archive/5-2004/sb/news1/?sess_=ba27d03e1198837c74b9750116ccfc35

I was mistaken, it was on a MiG 31, not 25.  This was backed by a German, so likely different from current project.

[hektor]

I have just realized that this seems quite in sync with Paris Air Show?

[02hurnella]

could they mean orbital? They build Ariane 5 and the ATV. Maybe they will use tourism to increase the launch rate? Is that possibly the meaning? (parle anglais?)

[hektor]

No technical detail is provided in this Le Point piece.

That could be zero-g in an Airbus, or a MiGBus, suborbital like SS2, or orbital. Or something else.

By the way, Sir Richard Branson has already bought a lot of planes including Airbus A380 to EADS. Do you think Virgin Galactic could be involved ?

[SIM city]

hektor - 7/6/2007  12:48 PM

By the way, Sir Richard Branson has already bought a lot of planes including Airbus A380 to EADS. Do you think Virgin Galactic could be involved ?

Doubtful.  A suborbital vehicle would likely cost four times as much from EADS as through Scaled or one of the other startups.  Though they are talking about going orbital in the future, they're not going to investing anything until their suborbital business gets off the ground.

[hektor]

If it is a suborbital, EADS would be the first major aerospace company to build one.

[hektor]

http://www.easybourse.com/Website/dynamic/News.php?NewsID=214039&lang=fra&NewsRubrique=1&pageliste=

[chicco]

EADS is partnering with Dassault Aviation on several activities. Among those, two important one are:
1. joint participation to an European funded R&D program with the objective to establish commercial viability of suborbital flights in Europe (sep 2006 - aug 2007)
2. joint sponsorship of the ACE (Astronaut Club Europeen) "Student Aerospace Challenge", contest open to universities students of France, Germany and othe European countries, with the objective to improve the solutions adopted on the Vehra suborbital vehicle, designed by Dassault Aviation.

The Vehra vehicle has been presented, for space tourism activities, last October 2006 at the IAC conference in Valencia.

I suppose EADS could benefit from this cooperations to promote the development of the Vehra vehicle.

By the way, during this June 13 meeting looks that only Private Investors and Banks have been invited...

http://www.hobbyspace.com/AAdmin/archive/RLV/2006/IAC-06-E3.4.07-Vehra-ACE.pdf

[pippin]

Funny. German FT claims it was a German idea within EADS ("convinced the French of the German idea...").
Suborbital rides to 100km, 200.000 bucks a ride, market size estimated at 5.000-7.000 customers.
http://www.ftd.de/unternehmen/:EADS%20Touristen%20All/210374.html

[Hotdog]

http://www.dassaultfalcon.com/whatsnew/falconer_article.jsp?DOCNUM=27887&IDOCNUM=27884

[Hotdog]

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/forum/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=3789&posts=85&start=1

[chicco]

EADS thinking of a six-passenegrs suborbital vehicle, using an A380F (freight) as first stage; vehicles should be launched from WITHIN the A380 and not from the top
http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article.php?a_id=109182

[Zond]

According to this article they are reviving some old german project: EADS concurrence Virgin Galactic

Selon La Tribune, "il s'agit d'un vieux projet allemand d'EADS, largement revu par le patron d'Astrium François Auque", qui a "été convaincu que ce projet serait rentable". L’avionneur tablerait sur 5 000 à 7 000 intéressés, pour un marché d’environ un milliard de dollars.

So it looks like it could be the MIGbus concept. Or does anybody know of some other old german space tourism concepts?

[chicco]

Phoenix

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EADS_Phoenix

In the article you posted is worth noting the name of the designer of the vehicle: Marc Newwson. His site it's quite interesting, especially the transport part. Looks like the guy has designed a Falcon 900B Jet for Dassault Aviation

http://www.marc-newson.com/#