WASHINGTON Rotary Rockets experimental Roton ATV spaceship prototype will resume flight testing this fall, with a series of more advanced flights of the helicopter-tipped test craft planned before years end. Geoffrey Hughes, Rotarys Vice President of Marketing told space.com Friday the next test flight will duplicate the first, conducted on July 23.

"Our primary purpose is to test whether we can hover and land," Hughes said by telephone from his office in Redwood City, California. "Can you stop the descent in the last few inches and hover there - well we did that," Hughes explained.

Now the task for the company is to complete evaluations of the test data from July and begin the next series of research flights. "Our next flight up will reproduce the first test," Hughes said. This version of the craft is an Atmospheric Test Vehicle and is not intended for space use.

The operational version of the Roton will use a rocket engine for launch through the atmosphere and a helicopter-like rotary blade system to fly the vehicle back to an airport runway or landing site. Such a controlled landing from space using rotors has never been attempted on any space vehicle, piloted or unpiloted. The Roton carries a flight crew who would actually pilot the craft into space and back. Purpose of the Roton is to provide reliable and cheaper space launch for customers ranging from cargo packages to satellites.

Author Tom Clancy believes in cheap access to space so much, hes put up $1 million dollars to help finance the Roton project, and he serves on the companys board of directors. "He also helps us out by supporting us in public," Hughes said.

The 63-foot tall Roton will be fully reusable and would carry two astronaut pilots and up to 7,000 pounds of cargo into low Earth orbit. According to company CEO Gary C. Hudson, Rotarys marketing target is telecommunications satellites and other commercial space vehicles bound for low orbits that the Roton could reach.

Hudson says he will charge payload customers $1,000 per pound for flights on the Roton. Current launchers charge as much as $10,000 per pound for the same service. The crafts rotary blades could also be used in the event of a launch abort to safely bring the craft and its occupants down in an emergency.

Two additional test craft are to be built as the company gathers funding. These, called the Propulsion Test Vehicles (PTV) 1 and 2, will bring the Roton and its pilots to altitudes greater than 500,000 feet in actual space testing. The ATV will only be used in atmospheric testing, Hughes said. But Hughes added that the most difficult task facing the company wasnt the rocketship.

"Although rocket science is challenging," Hughes remarked, "its not nearly as challenging as rocket finance."