Hopper was a planned unmanned space transport system from ESA. It resembled an airplane and was to be launched from a 4 km long track on a sleigh in French Guiana and then climbed to a height of 130 km in order to expose a rocket that would then have brought satellites into a terrestrial orbit. After that, Hopper was to land on an Atlantic island and be taken back to French Guiana by ship. The system should be operational by 2020 at the earliest, and it is estimated that the cost of transporting a payload to space per kilogram will be reduced to around 5,000 - 10,000 euros.
A test predecessor of Hopper was Phoenix, who completed a successful glide test in May 2004. Weblinks Edit sourcetext
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