“A small British company with a dream of building a re-usable space plane has won an important endorsement from the European Space Agency (ESA) after completing key tests on its novel engine technology. Reaction Engines Ltd believes its Sabre engine, which would operate like a jet engine in the atmosphere and a rocket in space, could displace rockets for space access and transform air travel by bringing any destination on Earth to no more than four hours away”. – Chris Wickham via Reuters. Photo: Artist's impression of Skylon. (Photo by Reaction Engines Ltd)

A Palestinian demonstrator (R) shouts at an Israeli soldier, during clashes with Israeli troops at the Qalandiya checkpoint, on June 5, 2011 between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah. The clashes come on the 44th Anniversary of the Arab defeat in the 1967 Six Day War of the Middle East. (Photo by David Vaaknin /Getty Images)

“SpaceShipOne was a suborbital air-launched spaceplane that completed the first manned private spaceflight in 2004. That same year, it won the US$10 million Ansari X Prize and was immediately retired from active service. Its mothership was named “White Knight”. Both craft were developed and flown by Mojave Aerospace Ventures, which was a joint venture between Paul Allen and Scaled Composites, Burt Rutan's aviation company. Allen provided the funding of approximately US$25 million”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A chase plane follows SpaceShipOne after it reached a height of 62 miles in the first non-governmental flight to leave the Earth's atmosphere on June 21, 2004 in Mojave, California. SpaceShipOne spacecraft was carried to a height of 50,000 by the twin-turbojet high-altitude research aircraft, “White Knight”, where it was launched for its final climb. The space effort was funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and headed by aerospace engineer Burt Rutan. (Photo by Jim Campbell-Pool/Getty Images)

Graffiti is painted on the bathroom walls at a restaurant in the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn borough in New York, United States, October 1, 2015. Some 2.4 billion people around the world don't have access to decent sanitation and more than a billion are forced to defecate in the open, risking disease and other dangers, according to the United Nations. To mark World Toilet Day on November 19, Reuters photographers captured pictures of toilets in cities, towns and villages around the globe. (Photo by Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

A participant shows off a belt buckle during the 20th annual Seattle Invitationals, an amateur Elvis impersonator competition, in Seattle, Washington January 23, 2015. The event drew hundreds of spectators for 20 contestants at the Crocodile, a venue in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood. (Photo by David Ryder/Reuters)

Manuela Vargas at a dress rehearsal for “The Tigress of the Flamenco” given by her company at the Vaudeville Theatre, London. (Photo by Dennis Oulds/Central Press/Getty Images). 4th November 1964

A man and a woman both wounded by what locals say was recent shelling by Ukrainian forces, react as they sit in an ambulance in Donetsk August 23, 2014. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

A man covered in motor oil, poses for a picture next to a girl dress a traditional clothes during a festivities in honor of Santo Domingo de Guzman in Managua, Nicaragua, Saturday, August 1, 2015. Some of the faithful coat their bodies in a black motor oil, red paint and wear traditional clothes as a promise for a prayer or miracle they believe was performed or answered by Managua's patron saint, Santo Domingo de Guzman. (Photo by Esteban Felix/AP Photo)