Manufacturer Scaled Composites | ||
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Kerbal space program spaceshipthree fully reusable spaceplane launch
The Scaled Composites SpaceShipThree (SS3) was a mid-2000s proposed spaceplane to be developed by Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites, ostensibly to follow SpaceShipTwo.
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History
The mission originally proposed for SpaceShipThree in 2005 was for orbital spaceflight, as part of a program called "Tier 2" by Scaled Composites.
By 2008, Scaled Composites had reduced those plans and articulated a conceptual design that would be a point-to-point vehicle traveling outside the atmosphere. As of 2008, the SpaceShipThree concept spacecraft was conceived to be used for transportation through point-to-point suborbital spaceflight with the spacecraft providing, for example, a two-hour trip on the Kangaroo Route (from London to Sydney or Melbourne).
Scaled was sold to Northrop Grumman in 2007, and references to further work on a conceptual Scaled SS3 ended at some point afterwards from Scaled.
As of 2016, Richard Branson is still planning to have a point-to-point sub-orbital spaceliner follow-up to SpaceShipTwo.
