SpaceShipOne and future?

[Shin Gou]

I just felt so excited of SpaceShipOne's historic flight today. Even
as a normal person with blank mind of space konwledge I believe that
within 15-20 years it's totally feasible for "high-end users" to
travel in 4-6 seat or even more seats space shuttle in a similar
launch method of SpaceShipOne to travel from one city on earth to
another city on the other side of earth in HOURS--just like what they
use their private jets today, only MUCH faster. Of course they need to
sustain 3-4 Gs during a preiod of flight, but hey those fat cats have
private body-building instructors, right? Anyone with me on this
issue?

Now I am just very curious about the transition for Rutan from
airplane design to space shuttle design. How did he learn the
knowledge necesseary for space shuttle design which I believe he
didn't touch before, what does he think the biggest difficulty in the
design, etc, etc....Long-EZ or Voyager is very different from
SpaceShipOne. I really hope there'd be a media interview soon to ask
him those questions and of course, can't wait for his book about the
project.

Well at the end I also hope Rutan can bring something back to
homebuilt world, no, not a kit SpaceShipOne, a good airplane design is
enough, just like what Long-EZ did long time ago.

What a wonderful day today!!

Shin Gou

[Orval Fairbairn]

In article >,
(Shin Gou) wrote:

> I just felt so excited of SpaceShipOne's historic flight today. Even
> as a normal person with blank mind of space konwledge I believe that
> within 15-20 years it's totally feasible for "high-end users" to
> travel in 4-6 seat or even more seats space shuttle in a similar
> launch method of SpaceShipOne to travel from one city on earth to
> another city on the other side of earth in HOURS--just like what they
> use their private jets today, only MUCH faster. Of course they need to
> sustain 3-4 Gs during a preiod of flight, but hey those fat cats have
> private body-building instructors, right? Anyone with me on this
> issue?
>
> Now I am just very curious about the transition for Rutan from
> airplane design to space shuttle design. How did he learn the
> knowledge necesseary for space shuttle design which I believe he
> didn't touch before, what does he think the biggest difficulty in the
> design, etc, etc....Long-EZ or Voyager is very different from
> SpaceShipOne. I really hope there'd be a media interview soon to ask
> him those questions and of course, can't wait for his book about the
> project.
>
> Well at the end I also hope Rutan can bring something back to
> homebuilt world, no, not a kit SpaceShipOne, a good airplane design is
> enough, just like what Long-EZ did long time ago.
>
> What a wonderful day today!!
>
> Shin Gou

SpaceShipOne is nowhere near to being a shuttle! Although it achieved
Astrunaut Wings qualifying altitudes, it did not achieve anything close
to orbital speed. It is still, effectively, an aircraft (albeit a very
fast one) and does not require the amount of heat shielding, etc. that a
Shuttle has.

burt's crew deserves all the roses heaped on them for their effort.