There is a private space plane in the works.
The Washington-based company emerged from stealth mode on Wednesday, announcing that it has raised $27.5 million in seed funding. The money will be used to develop a crew-carrying orbital space plane that will transform spaceflight and travel on Earth.
Richard Humphrey, CEO and co-founder of the company, said in a statement that they believe that there are endless opportunities for humankind.
Humphrey said that they intend to make space travel easy and convenient. We are not focused on tourism; we are dedicated to missions that make life better on our own planet, like research, in-space manufacturing and terrestrial observation, as well as critical new missions like rapid global delivery right here on Earth.
There are some good videos for you. It was created with a sketch.
The winged spaceship is the evolution of space planes.
An artist's illustration of a plane. The image is from Radian Aerospace.
The vehicle is called Radian One. Unlike NASA's old space shuttle orbiters, which landed vertically with the help of solid rocket boosters, it's designed to launch and land horizontally on a runway. A sled that will accelerate the vehicle on the runway will be used for takeoff help.
The new space plane will be capable of spending up to five days in space, according to its newly unveiled specifications page. It is part of the plan that vehicles can be refly as soon as 48 hours after touchdown.
It is designed to carry people and things to and from space. The space plane will be able to deliver up to 5,000 pounds (2,270 kilograms) anywhere on the planet in less than an hour.
The space plane's size, how many passengers it will be able to carry, and when it's expected to start flying are some of the details that have not been revealed. In Wednesday's press release, representatives from the company said that it had signed agreements with a number of private companies and government agencies, but they did not name any of them.
The new round of funding was led by a venture capital fund. A number of other investors, including Exor, The Venture Collective, Helios Capital, SpaceFund, Gaingels, The Private Shares Fund, Explorer 1 Fund and Type One Venture, contributed to the project.
"On-demand space operations is a growing economy, and I believe Radian's technology can deliver on the right-sized, high-cadence operations that the market opportunity is showing," said Dylan Taylor, chairman and CEO of Voyager Space.
Taylor, who recently flew to suborbital space aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard vehicle, said he was confident in the team working at Radian and looked forward to cheering them along.
" Out There" is a book about the search for alien life and was illustrated by Karl Tate. You can follow him on social media. Follow us on social media.
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