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Air-Breathing Rocket

Space Elevator

Space Plane

Future

At present, it costs about US$10,000 per pound (US$22,000/kg) to put an object in orbit, so it would cost US$1,600,000 to send a 160-pound peoson into space. A space shuttle needs 143,000 gallons of liquid oxygen, which weigh about 1,359,000 pounds. The shuttle itself only weighs 165,000 pound when empty, the external tank and the two solid rocket boosters weigh 78,100 pounds and 370,000 pounds respectively. That's a total of 613,100 pounds. When fuel and oxidizer are added, the total weight of the vehicle jumps rapidly to 4.4 million pounds. So it would cost US$4.4 X 1010 to launch such a vehicle!
NASA's aim at reducing launch cost to only a few hundred dollars per pound within the next 25 years. Of course, new launching methods and vehicles are needed. Let's have a look on some of the new methods!

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