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.
Christopher Columbus Kraft, Jr. (born February 28, 1924 in
Phoebus,
Virginia, died July 07, 2019 in
Houston, Texas) was a
NASA engineer and manager who was instrumental in establishing the agency's
Mission Control operation. Following his graduation from
Virginia Tech in 1944, Kraft was hired by the
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the predecessor organization to the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). He worked for over a decade in aeronautical research before being asked in 1958 to join the
Space Task Group, a small team entrusted with the responsibility of putting America's first man in space. Assigned to the flight operations division, Kraft became NASA's first
flight director. He was on duty during such historic missions as America's
first human spaceflight,
first human orbital flight, and
first spacewalk.
At the beginning of the Apollo program, Kraft retired as a flight director to concentrate on management and mission planning. In 1972, he became director of the Manned Spacecraft Center (later Johnson Space Center), following in the footsteps of his mentor Robert R. Gilruth. He held the position until his 1982 retirement from NASA. During his retirement, Kraft has consulted for numerous companies including IBM and Rockwell International, and he published an autobiography entitled Flight: My Life in Mission Control.
More than any other person, Kraft was responsible for shaping the organization and culture of NASA's Mission Control. As his protégé Glynn Lunney commented, "the Control Center today ... is a reflection of Chris Kraft." When Kraft received the National Space Trophy from the Rotary Club in 1999, the organization described him as "a driving force in the U.S. human space flight program from its beginnings to the Space Shuttle era, a man whose accomplishments have become legendary."