[geeks] Woohoo! SpaceShipOne does it!

[Sandwich Maker]

" From: james <james at jdfogg.com>
" 
" On Tue, 2004-10-05 at 10:14, Brian Dunbar wrote:
" > On Oct 5, 2004, at 8:14 AM, Lionel Peterson wrote:
" > 
" > >> From: Kris Kirby <kris at catonic.net>
" > >>
" > >> On Mon, 4 Oct 2004, Ido Dubrawsky wrote:
" > >>> http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/10/04/spaceshipone.attempt.cnn/
" > >>> index.html
" > >>>
" > >>> Awesome...makes me think about going back into the Aerospace field...
" > >>
" > >> Indeed. The Age of Commercial Aerospace will be upon us shortly..
" > >
" > > Apparently, Virgin has licensed the technology, they want to offer  
" > > "space travel"...
" 
" I assume that this altitude is not beyond the reach of gravity? If the
" ship's systems fail will they return to earth?

yes.  in fact, afaik power is not required for return, though it
wouldn't be maneuverable until it gets low enough for the aero
surfaces to work.

" And, is this altitude high enough to be usefull for placing small
" satellites in orbit?

no.  they'd reenter rather quickly.
--
the ship doesn't, and isn't required to by the prize, reach orbital
-velocity-.  accelerating to orbital speed takes about 100x more power
than just getting -out-there-.
________________________________________________________________________
Andrew Hay                                  the genius nature
internet rambler                            is to see what all have seen
adh at an.bradford.ma.us                       and think what none thought