

The plan is for the hydrogen-powered aircraft to take off like an airplane and then reach an orbit around the earth like a rocket.
Just for reference, the escape speed is 11.186 km/s or approximately mach 33.
The hypersonic aircraft equipped with such a propulsion system could make ESA’s vision of developing a horizontal take-off spacecraft a reality.
Interesting, but I see this as only as a step in that direction, not the final product that actually stays in orbit. If it can reach whatever altitude you call space, it certainly won’t stay there on its own. With speed like that, it’s just going to drop like a plane.
Oh ok. Tanks for the clarification.
Anyway, that’s still about mach 23, so a lot more than the planned speed.