Israeli X Prize Overview

sckienle writes "Space.com has an article about the Israeli X Prize spacecraft. Not a lot of hard technical details, but a good overview of an attempted alternative to standard rocket launches."

Balloon launch

[dpilot]

As a kid I remember seeing a picture of one of these from back in the early days of rocketry. The rocket was shooting right up through the balloon, destroying it in the process.

Unless they do some sort of drop first, or an initially oblique launch, I don't see how the Israeli effort can help but do the same. If they drop first, then they have to launch at negative velocity, which negates part of the benefit. If they launch through the balloon with a manned vehicle, they have to make sure they can go cleanly through it without snarling something.

It'll be interesting. I like the idea of getting to 80,000ft without spending reaction mass.