MOJAVE. California, Mar 2: The prototype of a reusable, manned rocket designed to land like a helicopter after carrying satellites into orbit was unveiled on Monday, reports AP.

The Roton, built by Rotary Rocket Co of Redwood City, is a launch vehicle powered by kerosene instead of costly hydrogen. which the firm hopes will cut launch costs by 90 per cent. It has been designed to launch like a rocket, then deploy a propeller and land like a helicopter.

Some 1.200 people gathered as the prototype was rolled out of a hangar at Mojave Airport. Among those in the crowd were NASA' chief engineer Daniel Mulville and teehno-ihriller novelist Tom Clancy, a Rotary Rocket investor.

"It’s our job as citizens to make space happen, to make space the place where people work." said CJancy. pointing to Roton. "What opened the West wasn't wagon trains, it was railroads and this is the railroad of the future."

The 20-metre-high rocket looks something like a windmill with a helicopter propeller fixed on top.

"It is not the shape of the rocket, it is the dream of the Eerson." said Mulville. who opes NASA will become a customer of such commercial launch vehicles.

It is expected to deliver its first satellite into orbit in the summer of 2000. said Gary Hudson. president of Rotary Rocket.

'This is only a step." Hudson said. 'We still have a long way IQ go "