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SpaceX Rocket Shuttle Point-To-Point On Earth
Is the SpaceX rocket shuttle from point-to-point on Earth pending for approval? I first covered this story in 2017: see SpaceX BFR Lands $41M From USAF for the full version of the extremely cool video.
As far as I know, Starship is still in the developmental testing phase, with recent FAA approvals limited to uncrewed orbital launches and landings (up to 25 per year at Boca Chica, Texas).
Science fiction fans may be thinking of the space shuttle from Hell Ship of Space (1940) by Frederic Arnold Kummer, Jr., the shuttle from Stars are Styx (1950) by Theodore Sturgeon, the shuttle ship from Heinlein's 1951 novel Between Planets, the JAL shuttle from Gibson's 1984 novel Neuromancer and the Clarke Spaceplane from A Quantum Murder (1998) by Peter F. Hamilton.
However, I'd reference the winged rocket shuttle from Between Planets, a 1951 novel by Robert Heinlein:
When he weighed in [at Albuquerque] he ran into another new security wrinkle. "Got a camera in that stuff, son? the weightmaster had inquired as he passed over his bags.
"No. Why?"
"Because we'll fog your film when we fluoroscope, that's why." Apparently X-ray failed to show any bombs hidden in his underwear; his bags were handed back and he went aboard - the winged-rocket Santa Fe Trail, shuttling between the Southwest and New Chicago. Inside, he fastened his safety belts, snuggled down into the cushions, and waited.
At first the noise of the blast-off bothered him more than the pressure. But the noise dopplered away as they passed the speed of sound while the acceleration grew worse; he blacked out.
He came to as the ship went into free flight, arching in a high parabola over the plains...
[He] listened half-heartedly to the canned description coming out of the loudspeaker of the country over which they were falling. Presently, near Kansas City, the sky turned from black to purple again, the air foils took hold, and the passengers again felt weight as the rocket continued glider fashion on a long, screaming approach to New Chicago.
See these related stories for other rocket plane plans:
- Rocketplane For Hawaiian Spaceport?
- SpaceX BFR Lands $41M From USAF
- SpaceX Rocket Quick Reaction Force
- SpaceX Will Build Floating Spaceports!
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 7/3/2025)
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