Skylon is a series of designs for a
single-stage-to-orbit spaceplane by the
British company
Reaction Engines Limited (REL), using
SABRE, a combined-cycle,
air-breathing rocket propulsion system. The vehicle design is for a
hydrogen-fuelled aircraft that would take off from a purpose-built
runway, and accelerate to
Mach 5.4 at 26 kilometres (85,000 ft) altitude (compared to typical airliners' 9–13 kilometres or 30,000–40,000 feet) using the
atmosphere's oxygen before switching the engines to use the internal
liquid oxygen (LOX) supply to take it into orbit. It could carry 17 tonnes (37,000 lb) of cargo to an equatorial
low Earth orbit (LEO); up to 11 tonnes (24,000 lb) to the
International Space Station, almost 45% more than the capacity of the
European Space Agency's
Automated Transfer Vehicle; or 7.3 tonnes; 7,300 kilograms (16,000 lb) to
Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO), over 24% more than
SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle in reusable mode (As of 2018
[update].) The relatively light vehicle would then
re-enter the atmosphere and land on a runway, being protected from the conditions of re-entry by a
ceramic composite skin. When on the ground, it would undergo inspection and necessary maintenance, with a turnaround time of approximately two days, and be able to complete at least 200 orbital flights per vehicle.
Glynn S. Lunney (November 27, 1936 – March 19, 2021) was an American
NASA engineer. An employee of NASA since its foundation in 1958, Lunney was a
flight director during the
Gemini and
Apollo programs, and was on duty during historic events such as the
Apollo 11 lunar ascent and the pivotal hours of the
Apollo 13 crisis. At the end of the Apollo program, he became manager of the
Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the first collaboration in spaceflight between the United States and the
Soviet Union. Later, he served as manager of the
Space Shuttle program before leaving NASA in 1985 and later becoming a Vice President of the
United Space Alliance.
Lunney was a key figure in America's manned space program from Project Mercury through the coming of the Space Shuttle. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the National Space Trophy, which he was given by the Rotary Club in 2005. Chris Kraft, NASA's first flight director, described Lunney as "a true hero of the space age", saying that he was "one of the outstanding contributors to the exploration of space of the last four decades".