Ascender Project - Briefing No.2  

Briefing No.2 - June 2001

Welcome to the second Ascender Project Briefing. The Ascender Project is an essential part of BSP's effort to commercially develop the Ascender Spaceplane. Ascender is an aircraft capable of flying to space on a sub-orbital trajectory utilising conventional airports. Ascender will be fully reusable and will therefore capable of offering a lower cost per flight than conventional space vehicles. Your membership is vital in encouraging direct support for Ascender as well as attracting sponsorship. The Ascender Project also encourages members to participate with Ascender and we will have a number of opportunities in the near future.

We are going to have a recruitment drive to increase the number of members. Increasing the number of members will give us real clout with funding sources, the media and politicians. To assist with this, we need your help:

• Recruit friends and relatives who would be interested in Ascender - simply write a letter enclosing the £25 fee

• E-mail, write or telephone any helpful comments, questions or criticisms - please remember that this is a supporters' club and so questions, comments and criticisms are always welcome.

In addition to this recruitment drive, we offer a presentation service. If your school, club or society would like a presentation about Ascender then call BSP to arrange a suitable time and date.

2001 was always the year that represented manned space travel after Arthur C Clarke's epic film. The film in fact shows a commercial orbital spaceplane travelling to a LEO space station. It is shame that such a future has yet to be realised. 2001, however, did see the first space tourist, or Citizen Explorer, as he preferred to be known. Dennis Tito paid $20m for a flight to the ISS and so became the first person to visit space because he could, rather than being assigned to a flight. Having been ridiculed for discussing space tourism (the infamous giggle factor - mention it and people giggle), it is nice to be proved that there are people who are willing to pay for the ultimate trip. Word suggests that there are a number of other suitably well endowed wannabe astronauts enquiring about commercial space flights.

The Flight Test Model has been structurally finished. The fuel system, undercarriage and instrumentation have been installed and tested and the instrumentation have been installed and tested and the model is ready for painting and finishing. Unfortunately we had a number of further commitments and have had to delay the test programme to accommodate them. Our preferred flying site has also been enclosed due to the FMD outbreak. The model was most useful as it allowed us to explore various engineering design options such as the jet engine mountings and fuel system.

Ascender and David Ashford featured on ITV's Tonight with Trevor McDonald during Tito's flight. ITV showed David presenting his plans for Ascender as well as footage of the model flying and the animated Ascender mission. The amount of public interest this generated was incredible, the website hit rate soared and the number of enquiries we received was immense. Such features do help raise Ascender's image and status.

So where does BSP go from here? We are raising our public profile and further developing the Ascender Project. The engineering work is always ongoing, however, our major effort is being diverted into fund raising and obtaining commercial sponsorship.

BSP will be holding the draw for the Ascender flights on October 1. This means that we shall be writing to one potential astronaut in the near future. Fingers crossed.