However, this process only starts happening efficiently at Mach 5, which means conventional rocket technology is required to get the scramjets to their critical operating speed.
The intention was to give the US a crew-carrier and rocket technology that could go beyond low-Earth orbit to more distant targets, back to the Moon and further.
Legendary videogame designer John Carmack --creator of games like Doom and Quake, and founder of id Software --owns rocket-technology startup Armadillo Aerospace .
"The Rocket Network technology can be used in many other fields where you need to have several people working on the same project at the same time, like a bunch of architects working on a house, " said Will Henshall.
Costs are supposed to be kept under control partly by recycling 1960's-vintage airplane technology and partly by spreading rocket development and operating costs across various commercial, military and civilian missions.
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Its disruptive technology is a novel air-breathing and rocket engine that would enable the ship to go to space in one leap.
Moon Express would use existing companies such as SpaceX to handle the rocket launch of the lander and then use its own technology to actually land on the moon.
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The latter include, for example: supercomputers, advanced machine tools, fiber optic and other sophisticated telecommunications gear, jet engine hot sections, rocket propulsion and guidance components, "stealth" technology, to name a few.
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Developing multiple stages is the Holy Grail of rocket science, requiring expertise in guidance systems and other tricky technology.
The official said the type of oxidiser container that was found from the first stage of the rocket launch would rarely be used by countries with advanced space technology.
Even measured by technology's fast clock, 2007 is off to a rocket start.
South Korea's Ministry for Education, Science and Technology said thorough checks had confirmed the leaks did not affect the safety of the rocket and the launch had been rescheduled.
Friday's launch was part of what Esa calls the Vega Research and Technology Accompaniment (Verta) programme - a sequence of flights intended to demonstrate the rocket's capabilities whilst at the same time moving it towards full commercial service.
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South Korea would not be able to tell whether the North had the technology to achieve re-entry until debris from the second and third stages of the rocket launch was analysed, the defence ministry said.
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