After decades of dreams, a commercial spaceplane is almost ready to fly::“Plunging into the ocean is awful. Landing on a runway is really nice."
How many billionaires does it seat? They’re not going to the Titanic, maybe this will work.
We’ll have to wait for the next model, this one is strictly unmanned cargo transport.
Why? There’s so many other things we could put money towards that would help people like climate change research.
Anyone?
It’s hard to imagine that a spaceplane would have a larger environmental impact than a rocket. Since we are going to continue sending things to space, a spaceplane would have a positive impact on climate change.
It’s still launched by a rocket. The plane part is only for landing. Whether this will actually work or be more efficient than ablative re entry remains to be seen.
Cheaper satellites are a good thing environmentally though, as it will be how any emission controls will be monitored.