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Comment by sek | Hacker News Reader

Why are they complaining so much? If it works DARPA, SpaceX, VirginGalactic, ESA and NASA will pay more than you can ever spend. When they didn't get the attention of these guys so far, there is probably a mayor catch.

Edit:

What i mean is this part:

> To succeed, it needs to capture a healthy slice of the market for satellite launches. That's the biggest potential earner. But to do that, it must prove viable.

The story from the garage and share of satellite launches, that doesn't sound like a plan. That sounds like someone who want's to be like NASA, there was nothing in the article about reducing costs and LEO or anything business related.

> He intervenes. "Not 'could'," he says. "It's not 'Skylon could make space travel easier'. It's 'Skylon will make space travel easier'."

Skylon, makes space travel easier. Now on Kickstarter.

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Because their financial projections are bunk and are ridiculously understated. Every piece of technology on the vehicle is custom made. Even if you accept all their projections you still have to assume that they develop it in time and that it works as intended. Any weight overruns will literally make the vehicle unusable.

If they have a revolutionary technology and they can really show that these billions will provide the most competitive way of Space travel. There are a dozen companies and well funded government agencies who have the money and could provide most of the infrastructure they need.

Why is nobody interested? If there are big reservations, why do they start with satellite launches? Why not start by making more powerful engines than Rolls Royce, and sell these to all the candidates who are interested.

I have a concept for a better Operating System, i need a big chunk of OS sales. I need Billions to have something comparable to Microsoft. Btw it's a British operating system, the government should give me the money.

They are starting with engines. The rest of their ideas are simply concepts at this stage. It's a small company.

The problem is that plenty of people have tried and failed to produce a successful air-breathing rocket engine. Nobody wants to invest any money in Reaction Engines until they can prove that the core concept that the company is built on works. And proving this costs a certain amount of cash. Some of this is being financed by the ESA, in very much the same way that NASA is financing new commercial spaceflight efforts.

In the next year or two we're either going to see them succeed and garner lots of investment, or fail and fade into obscurity.

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