The Spaceship (tail number EC101) is a lifting-wing ramjet aircraft[2] owned by John Ellicott Chatham. When Hannelore was seven she named it "Spaceship". The vehicle is used to reach The Space Station, where Ellicott-Chatham works and resides.
The exterior markings of The Spaceship are of Ellicott Chatham Technologies, with interior seating similar to that of Boeing's 777 first class cabins. This was apparently noticed by someone from Boeing:
| “ | Just got an email from an interior-parts designer for Boeing, thanking me for using their 777 first-class seats in the comic :3 | ” |
| — Jeph on Twitter[3] |
The vehicle would probably be classified as a single-stage-to-orbit reusable launch vehicle (SSTO RLV), very similar to the X-33 Spaceplane. Spaceship is unarmed due to government intervention.[2]
The craft has no human pilot, instead being flown by a sentient program. The Spaceship AI is a generally affable personality, though his holographic projectors occasionally have some issues.[4]
Speculation[]
As presented in the strip, there is theoretically not enough room in EC101 to hold enough chemical fuel to reach orbit. Possible explanations are:
- It has an on-board nuclear power source,
- It is powered externally by a laser launch system, or
- It's just a cartoon.