ESA's new Invictus space plane could be operational in 2031.

ESA's new space plane “Invictus” is one of the next-generation tools for civil and military space missions. The Invictus looks like the Skylon space plane that BAE recently cancelled. The Invictus could be based on technology that was created for Skylon, but the aircraft will have a more capable team working with it. The European Space Agency (ESA) plans to get Invictus airborne and operational at least in 2031. When we think about the Invictus’s role in space missions, we must first look at the cases where the Cold War-era F-4 Phantoms are planned to be used as satellite cargo missions. Those quite fast fighters will climb as high as they can and then launch miniature satellites into orbit. 

The Invictus can also raise similar satellite carriers to the edge of the atmosphere. And then they can launch those satellites far higher than the F-4 or F-15 Eagle. There have been plans to connect auxiliary rocket packs to the F-4 or F-15 that allow them to jump higher before they release the satellite. 

 The Invictus can have rocket-ramjet or more conventional rocket turbojet hybrid systems. The idea in rocket ramjets is that the ramjet engine raises the space plane to the edge of the atmosphere. Then the iris closes the engine face. And then the engine starts to use an internal oxygen source. In rocket turbojets, the system uses normal turbojet engines in atmospheric flight. 

"A US Vought ASM-135 ASAT missile launch on 13 September 1985, which destroyed P78-1" (Wikipedia, Anti-satellite weapon)

Then the system closes the face of the afterburner, and then that system turns the afterburner into a normal rocket. In the simplest engine solution, the aircraft uses turbojets in the atmosphere. When the flight altitude turns high enough, the system turns to use separated rocket engines. The iris at the front of the turbojet is required because the airflow can damage turbine wings. But if developers can install those orbital rocket engines with some other engine type that decreases the weight of the system. 

The staged system, where the aircraft can operate first with turbojets and then turn to ramjet and finally to scramjet, allows it to fly in the atmosphere at a higher speed using atmospheric oxygen. When that space plane jumps out from the atmosphere, it turns to use rocket mode in ramjet engines. 

There is also an idea about high-altitude airships (HAA), or High Altitude platform stations (HAPS), as the satellite launchers. Those airships can rise to altitudes of about 30 kilometers. They can launch bigger satellite carriers than jet fighters. Those platforms can be airships, balloons, or solar-powered aircraft. HAPS can also use things like internal fuel cells. The HAPS can carry a satellite launcher to high altitude and launch it there. 

The idea of aircraft-based satellite launchers is taken from the U.S. military ASAT, Anti-satellite weapon. The F-15 raises that weapon to the highest point of ballistic trajectory and then that system launches the satellite-killer missile. 

The thing in the satellite launchers is that the same systems can also transport anti-satellite (ASAT) systems to orbiters. Satellites are playing a bigger and bigger role in the modern military. Satellites offer reconnaissance information about enemy movements. And there are also killer satellites in space. ASAT systems can take those killer satellites out. So in that case, they play a counterweapon role. But of course, targeting satellites and military communication satellites are good targets for ASAT weapons. 

So, that means anti-satellite weapons will become more important than ever before. The ASAT weapons can also become more vital than ever before because of suspected fractional orbital bombardment systems (FOBS) or EMP weapons that the enemy launches at orbital trajectory. The ASAT system can eliminate those threats. 

https://www.rudebaguette.com/en/2025/07/theyre-back-from-the-dead-cold-war-f-4-phantoms-revived-to-launch-satellites-and-experts-warn-this-is-military-space-2-0/

https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/europe-working-to-launch-invictus-hypersonic-space-plane-by-2031-video

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-satellite_weapon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-altitude_platform_station

Reseachers map dark universe: Euclid mission.

"The huge mosaic released by ESA’s Euclid space telescope on October 15, 2024, accounts for 1% of the wide survey that Euclid will capture over six years. The location and actual size of the mosaic on the Southern Sky is shown in yellow. This all-sky view is an overlay of ESA Gaia’s star map from its second data release in 2018 and ESA Planck’s dust map from 2014. Credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA; ESA/Gaia/DPAC; ESA/Planck Collaboration." (ScitechDaily, Euclid “Dark Universe” Telescope Unveils Stunning 208-Gigapixel Window Into the Cosmos)

ESA's Euclid mission purpose is to find out the form of dark matter. The interesting question is this: are weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs, so-called real or virtual material? The virtual version means that there are so-called holes or electron-hole-type structures in the base energy field in the universe. 

That means the dark matter could be an exciton-type quasiparticle structure. In excitons, the electron jumps out from its orbital. And then that electron starts to orbit its own hole. The thing is that the depth of that electron hole determines how many electrons that hole can tie around it. 

That hole is at a lower energy level than the base energy level in the universe. Or in the most exciting version, those mysterious WIMPs, or part of them are so-called low-mass primordial black holes. If the WIMP is a so-called virtual particle. 

"This graphic provides an overview of the mosaic and zoomed in images released by ESA’s Euclid mission on October 15, 2024. On the top left, an all-sky map (41,000 square degrees) is visible with the location of Euclid’s mosaic on the Southern Sky highlighted in yellow. In the mosaic, the locations of the various zoomed in images are shown. Above the separate images, the zoom factor is given (from 3 to 600 times enlarged compared to the original mosaic). Credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, CEA Paris-Saclay, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, E. Bertin, G. Anselmi; ESA/Gaia/DPAC; ESA/Planck Collaboration"(ScitechDaily, Euclid “Dark Universe” Telescope Unveils Stunning 208-Gigapixel Window Into the Cosmos)

"This mosaic made by ESA’s Euclid space telescope contains 260 observations collected between March 25 and April 8, 2024. This is 1% of the wide survey that Euclid will capture during six years. In just two weeks, Euclid covered 132 square degrees of the Southern Sky, more than 500 times the area of the full Moon as seen from Earth. The full mosaic is 208 gigapixels. Credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, CEA Paris-Saclay, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, E. Bertin, G. Anselmi" (ScitechDaily, Euclid “Dark Universe” Telescope Unveils Stunning 208-Gigapixel Window Into the Cosmos)

It's possible. That the dark flow out from the universe forms that effect. The energy level in the universe is higher than around it. So, energy flows to the universe's environment. That flow can form the quantum shadow on the side, where the flow goes. That shadow or lower energy area pulls particles to them, and that thing creates the dark gravity effect, that we know as dark matter. 

Dark matter means gravity interaction, whose origin is unknown. The key question is this: what puts gravity waves move in the Higgs, or base energy field in the universe? Gravity is possible without mass. In those models, things like oscillating or shaking superstrings cause gravity waves. That we know as dark matter. 

One interesting thing about dark matter is that there is no dark matter in every galaxy. The one galaxy without dark matter doesn't make the dark matter nonexistent. That observation makes this effect more interesting than nobody expected. If dark matter is a so-called quasiparticle that observation means that it also quasiparticles can form similar structures as the so-called real material.