Rutan hits 200k feet! Almost there!

"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message
ink.net...

"C J Campbell" wrote in message
...

Someone might have said the same thing to the Wrights.


Where's the similarity? The Wrights were the first to achieve powered,
sustained, controlled heavier-than-air flight. Nobody had accomplished
that
before the Wrights on December 17, 1903. But manned suborbital flight HAS
been accomplished before, four times before, and it was last done over
forty
years ago. If manned suborbital spaceflight had any real usefulness why
did
it stop?


The earlier flights were not done in a re-usable spacecraft.



The idea is to prove that privately financed space travel is both
feasible
and reasonable. No government has managed to do what Rutan and
the others are attempting. The prize has the additional advantage of
attracting media attention so that, once it has been won, public
interest in space tourism will be generated.


So the ultimate goal is passenger hops as a commercial venture?

Yes.

"C J Campbell" wrote in message
...

The earlier flights were not done in a re-usable spacecraft.


So what?

In article . net,
"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote:

"C J Campbell" wrote in message
...

The earlier flights were not done in a re-usable spacecraft.

So what?

So that is a large part of what makes it different from the single-shot
suborbital flights of the past.

Not to mention the thousands of man-hours and cast of thousands needed
to turn around the shuttle.

One step on the road to non-government, gold-plated, decades-long
development projects type spaceflight.

"Steve Hix" wrote in message
...

So that is a large part of what makes it different from the single-shot
suborbital flights of the past.


As another poster has already pointed out, two of the four previous manned
suborbital space flights were done with reusable craft.

In article et,
"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote:

"Steve Hix" wrote in message
...

So that is a large part of what makes it different from the single-shot
suborbital flights of the past.


As another poster has already pointed out, two of the four previous manned
suborbital space flights were done with reusable craft.

Yeah, I forgot about the X-15. And I used to have a photo of the X-15
signed by Joe Engle. My bad.

"Steve Hix" wrote in message
...
In article . net,
"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote:

"C J Campbell" wrote in message
...

The earlier flights were not done in a re-usable spacecraft.

So what?

So that is a large part of what makes it different from the single-shot
suborbital flights of the past.

Not to mention the thousands of man-hours and cast of thousands needed
to turn around the shuttle.

One step on the road to non-government, gold-plated, decades-long
development projects type spaceflight.

The problem is that merely reaching the altitude is only a
part of the problem. The real issue is achieving orbital velocity
and the Rutan aircraft doesnt achive much more than 15%
of the velocity required to put something in orbit.

Keith

"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message
...

The problem is that merely reaching the altitude is only a
part of the problem. The real issue is achieving orbital velocity
and the Rutan aircraft doesnt achive much more than 15%
of the velocity required to put something in orbit.


Why is that an issue? Reaching the altitude is all they're trying to do.

"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message
nk.net...

"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message
...

The problem is that merely reaching the altitude is only a
part of the problem. The real issue is achieving orbital velocity
and the Rutan aircraft doesnt achive much more than 15%
of the velocity required to put something in orbit.


Why is that an issue?

Because without reaching orbit you cant do anything useful.

Reaching the altitude is all they're trying to do.

Thats obvious

Keith

In article ,
"Keith Willshaw" wrote:

"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message
nk.net...

"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message
...

The problem is that merely reaching the altitude is only a
part of the problem. The real issue is achieving orbital velocity
and the Rutan aircraft doesnt achive much more than 15%
of the velocity required to put something in orbit.


Why is that an issue?

Because without reaching orbit you cant do anything useful.

So much for sounding rockets. Let's shut down Wallops Island and White
Sands...

Reaching the altitude is all they're trying to do.

Thats obvious

Keith

"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message
...

Because without reaching orbit you cant do anything useful.


Have you followed all of this thread? That's my point.



Thats obvious


Is it? Your message suggested you were not aware of that.