Posted by NewVoyageNews

The Astrium Space Jet was proposed recently during the Le Bourget Airshow in Paris last week. The space ship will be designed to carry 4 passengers to an altitude of 100 km, giving them 3 minutes of weightlessness in space.

EADS is an aerospace company that is Europe's largest builder of rockets and satellites, they are also the owner of Airbus. They are expected to announce plans to start a space tourism venture at the Paris air show next week. Their space tourism ship has been in development for several years.

It has been developing a space tourism project for seven years with the Phoenix, a reusable craft. The prototype is 23ft long, with a 12ft wing span and an aluminium structure weighing just over a ton. The prototype is believed to be one-sixth of the size of the planned vehicle.

Their current executive president, François Auque, stated that their ambitions in the space tourism market are primarily sub-orbital flights, perhaps expanding into orbital flights and eventually expediting trips to a space hotel.

From The Times Online via New Voyage News