Earth Launch Vehicle: Haas/Helen

[RaresH]

There's a team vying for the lunar x-prize that is incorporating an unusual flight model for their entry. Should they succeed they very well may be the cheapest option for ground to LEO missions. I've been following them for a couple years now and I have to say they are extremely ambitious and very active. Check them out;

http://arcaspace.ro/index.htm

[Sam Fraser]

Yes, good to see some efforts from outside the US. But Romania of all places? Best of luck to them. Their progress and success (or failure) will be very instructive to our own lunar and asteroid probe mission(s).

[RaresH]

Indeed, considering that it is a small post communist country still in development one could hardly imagine such an ambitious program coming out of the private sector let alone the relatively well funded government sector. But where this little country lacks in capital, it is abundant in academic and creative resources not to mention a rich history in aviation among other things.

A few notable individuals from that region include Hermann Oberth, one of founding fathers of modern rocketry and astronautics. Traian Vuia, first to invent the self-propelled lighter than air plane 1906, Henri Coanda, first to build and fly jet propelled airplane in 1910 ( Eiffel himself stated that Coanda was 30 years ahead of his time durring the 1910 Paris air show). There's more but I'll save it for another post. So there's no short supply of inspiration in Romania.