Europe sketches winged RLV C5 as an alternative to Starship

A German Aerospace Center analysis of SpaceX's Starship estimates current fully reusable payload around 59 tonnes to LEO, with next‑gen versions potentially reaching ~115 t reusable or ~188 t expendable. The paper also outlines an European option, the RLV C5, pairing SpaceLiner's winged booster with an expendable upper stage and mid‑air recovery by a large aircraft, delivering about 70 t to orbit with ~74% of its mass going to payload. It’s presented as an intermediate, Europe‑led path rather than a direct competition to Starship, which has real‑world flight history but still faces full reusability engineering challenges.