this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2025
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Europe now has 3 separate spaceplanes in development. Will any of them get to space? (futurology.today)
submitted 2 days ago by Lugh@futurology.today to c/futurology@futurology.today
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Europe has a long history of fragmented space efforts. France is the leading European nation for space tech and coordinates many of its efforts with ESA. So do other countries, but there are also 13 separate national space agencies. Will this fragmentation help or hinder spaceplane efforts? Maybe having three teams trying different approaches means exploring more options.

Spaceplane 1 - POLARIS Raumflugzeuge is developing one for the German Armed Forces Procurement Office (BAAINBw)

Spaceplane 2 - VORTEX, a French reusable mini-space shuttle that will launch on rockets.

Spaceplane 3 - Britain/ESA - INVICTUS - A reusable spaceplane for LEO using the tech previously worked on by Reaction Engines/Sabre.

Out of these three, the German effort seems most advanced. It has already successfully tested elements of its technology, and it aims for a launch date (2027) far nearer than the others.

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[โ€“] Korkki@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Hasn't the reaction engines/sabre/skylon project been around like two decades? How come germans are head in all of this?

[โ€“] Lugh@futurology.today 2 points 2 days ago

The Germans have been doing it for a while too, but they seemed to have got more results and be closer to launch.