Rotary Rocket Company was a rocketry company that developed the Roton concept in the late 1990s as a fully reusable single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) crewed spacecraft. The design was initially conceived by Bevin McKinney, who shared it with Gary Hudson. In 1996, Rotary Rocket Company was formed to commercialize the concept. The Roton was intended to reduce costs of launching payloads into low Earth orbit by a factor of ten.
The Rotary Rocket Roton ATV on permanent display at the Mojave Spaceport
The ATV's cockpit was nicknamed the 'Batcave' by its pilots because of its restricted field of view.
The Rotary Rocket Hangars at Mojave Air and Space Port, as seen in 2005. The taller hangar on the left was the Rotary Rocket Assembly Building.
A single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) vehicle reaches orbit from the surface of a body using only propellants and fluids and without expending tanks, engines, or other major hardware. The term usually, but not exclusively, refers to reusable vehicles. To date, no Earth-launched SSTO launch vehicles have ever been flown; orbital launches from Earth have been performed by either fully or partially expendable multi-stage rockets.
The VentureStar was a proposed SSTO spaceplane.
ROMBUS concept art
The maiden flight of the DC-X
Comparison of growth factor sensitivity for Single-Stage-to-Orbit (SSTO) and restricted stage Two-Stage-to-Orbit (TSTO) vehicles. Based on a LEO mission of Delta v = 9.1 km/s and payload mass = 4500 kg for range of propellant Isp.