Ares
Dassault Ares Spaceplane
French winged orbital launch vehicle. This was to be a reusable winged rocket-powered atmospheric reentry demonstrator capable of reaching speeds of Mach 4 to 10 in the atmosphere. The aim was for ESA to build up experience in reuse operations and high-speed atmospheric flight in the 2003-2007 period. The demonstrator would weigh two tonnes and have a range of 1500 kilometers. It would be able to land on a conventional runway. Dassault and Aerospatiale Matra were to merge their VEHRA and ARES projects to produce a single design. Ares estimated cost was 550 million dollars.
AKA: European eXperimental Test Vehicle.
Status: Design 1999.
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Associated Countries
See also
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Winged In the beginning, nobody (except Jules Verne) thought anybody would be travelling to space and back in ballistic cannon balls. The only proper way for a space voyager to return to earth was at the controls of a real winged airplane. More...
Associated Manufacturers and Agencies
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ESA European agency overseeing development of rockets and spacecraft. European Space Agency, Europe. More...
Bibliography
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Sweetman. Bill, "Review of Air Force Association Show", Interavia, 9/23/87.
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