Spaceplanes [electronic resource] : From Airport to Spaceport / by Matthew A. Bentley.

Rocketplanes at the Airport -- Why Spaceplanes? -- Rocket Science: Wings Added -- Missiles and Modules -- Crawling into Suborbit: The Baby Spaceplane -- Going Ballistic -- Piggyback to Orbit -- Advanced Propulsion -- Single Stage to Orbit: The Advanced Spaceplane -- Destination Moon: The Lunar Spaceplane -- Strategies for Success -- Spaceplanes at the Spaceport.

Someday, there may be plane-like vehicles that take off from a runway and fly high above Earth, bringing people to work in space, to stay at a space hotel, to visit a Moonbase, or to board another ship for a journey to a neighboring planet in the Solar System. Well, that time is coming, and it’s coming sooner than you might think! There are a number of private companies already taking reservations for passenger flights into suborbital space. There are companies drawing up plans for hotels in space and governments drawing up plans for Moonbases and eventual trips to Mars. Although the fares for the soon-to-be-available suborbital "joy" rides are still rather steep, prices are coming down, and competition is growing fiercer. Matthew Bentley will guide you through the almost bewildering array of different kinds of spaceplanes being developed and show you what the new "spacelines" have in store for us. A strong believer in the ultimate economic advantages of spaceplanes over conventional launch vehicles, Bentley believes their development will guide us to a new and bigger era of space adventure—more grand than has ever been contemplated before.