A revolution in spaceflight is likely soon with the prospect of everyday accessto orbit within fifteen years. Costly ballistic missiles used to launchvehicles w... » 

A revolution in spaceflight is likely soon with the prospect of everyday accessto orbit within fifteen years. Costly ballistic missiles used to launchvehicles will be replaced by spaceplanes using technology that existstoday. In five years time a prototype could be built and with a further tenyears of detailed development the design could approach airliner maturityreducing the cost of sending people into space some one thousand times toaround US20000.Spaceplane development has in effect been suppressed by entrenched thinkingand shortterm vested interests. But the present monopoly of large governmentspace agencies is becoming unsupportable and the market that understands thevery real opportunities for space travel will be reaching critical mass in thenear future.This book examines these issues and shows why space tourism will one day becomethe single largest business in space and how astronomy will be transformed bylowcost access making practicable instruments orders of magnitude larger thanthose today. «