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Test Flight Of Space-Hopper Reusable Launch Vehicle
!splut writes: "A New Scientist article reports that Pheonix, the prototype of a new reusable space launch vehicle nicknamed the Space-Hopper, has been cleared for its first test flight. The vehicle is designed to take off horizontally and use a disposable booster to reach orbit, though the prototype will be dropped from a helicopter for the test flight. If the European Space Agency decides to continue development it could reduce the cost of launching small to medium-sized satellites, and could be ready by 2015." A better story is running at space.com.
The chances of this succeeding sound slim to me... maybe I'm just being pessimistic, but budgets for space projects have been small lately.
Seems that in this type of economy, interesting government-funded space and scientific projects are the first to be cut...