{"id":143805,"date":"2025-09-17T18:14:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T18:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/143805\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T18:14:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T18:14:09","slug":"does-europe-need-a-spaceplane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/143805\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Europe need a spaceplane?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>PARIS \u2013 Europe should be investing in disruptive capabilities like spaceplanes, said Maj. Gen. Philippe Koffi, French armament agency DGA strategic lead for air, land and naval combat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA spaceplane is maneuverable, reusable and flexible, so it can deliver payload in orbit, recover critical assets, conduct reconnaissance and intervene against threats in orbit,\u201d Koffi said Sept. 17 at the Space Defense &amp; Security Summit here.<\/p>\n<p>At the Paris Air Show in June, Dassault Aviation announced an agreement with DGA to develop <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dassault-aviation.com\/en\/space\/aerospace-vehicles\/vortex-vehicule-orbital-reutilisable-de-transport-et-dexploration\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">VORTEX<\/a>, a four-meter-long spaceplane demonstrator with a mass of less than one metric ton. A first flight is expected in 2028.<\/p>\n<p>VORTEX, which stands for reusable orbital vehicle designed for transport and exploration, will launch on a small rocket, reach hypersonic speeds, perform atmospheric reentry and validate key technologies including thermal protection systems, Koffi said. <\/p>\n<p>Through VORTEX, France is not seeking its own fleet of spaceplanes. The program is aimed at demonstrating technical viability through a public-private partnership. Dassault and other industrial partners will cover half of program costs.<\/p>\n<p>Versatility<\/p>\n<p>Still, spaceplanes have key military applications because they \u201ccould deploy satellites, sensors and even weapons in orbit within hours or days and not months,\u201d Koffi said. In addition, spaceplanes are versatile, offering \u201crapid transportation, spacecraft servicing and even recovery of critical assets.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In addition, spaceplanes are unpredictable, Koffi said, providing \u201cglobal reach within less than 90 minutes, adding uncertainty for any adversary and even deterrence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Koffi sees spaceplanes are \u201ca logical extension\u201d of France\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.airbus.com\/en\/products-services\/defence\/future-combat-air-system-fcas\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Future Combat Air System<\/a> (FCAS). FCAS is a system of systems that includes a piloted next-generation fighter and swarming drones linked by cloud-computing architecture. <\/p>\n<p>To achieve air superiority, it is essential \u201cto detect, intercept and to act against threats evolving in near space,\u201d at altitudes of 20 to 100 kilometers, Koffi said. \u201cWithin that broader framework, the Vortex spaceplane can be the missing link.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS \u2013 Europe should be investing in disruptive capabilities like spaceplanes, said Maj. Gen. Philippe Koffi, French armament&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[66490,66491,90,1957,416,26172,56,54,55,65467],"class_list":{"0":"post-143805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-dassault-aviation","9":"tag-french-armament-agency-dga","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-sn","12":"tag-space","13":"tag-spaceplanes","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom","17":"tag-world-space-business-week"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}