ESA to Unveils Brit-Made SABRE Hybrid Rocket Engine

The makers of the newfangled Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine (SABRE) have secured the necessary funding to fire up their hardware by 2020.

Reaction Engines – the Oxfordshire, England-based team behind the next-gen engine – signed a collaboration contract with the European Space Agency at the Farnborough Air Show on Tuesday, which in turn unlocks a full £60m (US$80m) grant from the UK government. The ESA will administer €10m of that cash and the UK Space Agency (UKSA) will take care of the rest.

That means both the ESA and the UKSA will have a hand in overseeing the project, which is reassuring. We should see the engine test unit firing by the end of the decade – with a full aircraft expected a few years after that.

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