FAST20XX (Future High-Altitude High Speed Transport 20XX ) was a

European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...

(ESA) programme to develop the necessary technologies for a

hypersonic In aerodynamics, a hypersonic speed is one that exceeds five times the speed of sound, often stated as starting at speeds of Mach 5 and above. The precise Mach number at which a craft can be said to be flying at hypersonic speed varies, since i ...

suborbital A sub-orbital spaceflight is a spaceflight in which the spacecraft reaches outer space, but its trajectory intersects the surface of the gravitating body from which it was launched. Hence, it will not complete one orbital revolution, will no ...

spaceplane A spaceplane is a vehicle that can flight, fly and gliding flight, glide as an aircraft in Earth's atmosphere and function as a spacecraft in outer space. To do so, spaceplanes must incorporate features of both aircraft and spacecraft. Orbit ...

. Funding for the programme was established under the European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme.

Overview

The FAST 20XX programme run from 2009 to 2012 and was intended to provide a technological foundation for the industrial introduction of advanced hypersonic suborbital spaceplanes in the medium to longer term. No detailed vehicle design was planned under the program, with work instead focusing on mastering the technologies required for the development of such designs. Once the needed technologies were identified, researchers developed the dedicated analytical, numerical and experimental tools needed to investigate them. The project also looked at the legal and regulatory issues related to suborbital flight in consultation with government and international authorities. Two concepts have been focused on under the program. The first, ALPHA, is based on

SpaceShipOne SpaceShipOne is an experimental air launch, air-launched rocket-powered aircraft with sub-orbital spaceflight capability at speeds of up to / using a hybrid rocket motor. The design features a unique "Feathering (reentry), feathering" atmosph ...

, which won the

Ansari X-Prize The Ansari X Prize was a space competition in which the X Prize Foundation offered a US$10,000,000 () prize for the first non-government organization to launch a reusable crewed spacecraft into space twice within two weeks. It was modeled afte ...

in 2003. A key aspect of the design is the need for a carrier plane to launch the suborbital vessel. The second design to be analyzed is based on the

German Aerospace Center The German Aerospace Center (, abbreviated DLR, literally ''German Center for Air- and Space-flight'') is the national center for aerospace, energy and transportation research of Germany, founded in 1969. It is headquartered in Cologne with 3 ...

SpaceLiner SpaceLiner is a concept for a Sub-orbital spaceflight, suborbital, hypersonic, winged passenger supersonic transport, conceived at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, or DLR) in 2005. In its second role the S ...

concept. The SpaceLiner is an all–rocket-propelled vehicle intended to achieve a step change in ultra-fast long-haul passenger and freight transport, with the intended ability to transport 50 passengers from Australia to Europe in 90 minutes.

References

External links

ESA Technology Development, contains program description

Video – To Australia in 90 minutes at hypersonic speed - DLR Blogs
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