Europe is hop to launch a space plane in the next few years , but it ’s already started making plans   to commercialize it .

The fomite is calledSpace Rider , which yes , sounds pretty awesome . It ’s expire to mensurate up to 5   meters ( 16 human foot ) in length , which is about half the size of the US Air Force ’s mysteriousX-37Band   11 time shorter than the Space Shuttle .

It ’s an unmanned fomite , and will be used to perform experiment in microgravity . It ’s got a payload Laurus nobilis , so it could release some modest satellite into range . ESA also plan to use it to test how to retort from space , something they say they do n’t have “ solid knowhow ” about .

ESA is hoping to perform a test flight in 2020 before it becomes regularly usable , using an Arianespace Vega - C rocket to get to orbit . It can then land on a runway by itself . The conception is based on ESA ’s Intermediate Experimental Vehicle ( IXV ) , basically a prototype quad airplane thatlaunched and bring in 2015 .

But according toSpaceNews , even though it has n’t launch yet , ESA already has plan to market Space Rider . “ We really believe there is a market , a niche , that will drive this , ” Giorgio Tumino , ESA ’s   Space Rider and Vega Eruca vesicaria sativa evolution program director , say the website .

Quite what it will expect is n’t hump yet , but Space Rider will have place ( heh ) to take up to 800 kilograms ( 1,760 pound sterling ) of stuff into orbit , at a price of $ 9,200 per kilogram . That ’s actually not that cheap , considering SpaceX ’s Falcon 9 can institutionalise equipment even higher forless than $ 4,000 . Ho hum .

The vehicle will orbit Earth at an altitude of about 400 kilometers ( 250 miles ) , which is about the same as the International Space Station ( ISS ) , for several months at a clock time . It will launch from Europe ’s spaceport in Kourou , French Guiana , although the local anaesthetic have n’t beensuper happyabout ESA launching from here of late .

This is not the only orbital distance plane in development . There ’s also the aforementioned X-37B and US companionship Sierra Nevada’sDream Chaser , which will be used to take cargo to the ISS . It might even take mankind into space one day , too .

With reusability being such a big good deal these days , ESA seems penetrative to pink into this market . Launch prices are rapidly shake off elsewhere though ,   so the Space Rider may not have much of a market by the sentence it really does fly . But it will be a respectable chance for ESA to test out space plane engineering , at the very least .

( H / T : SpaceNews )