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A fellow on one of the email lists sent a note that
Mike will be on the Tonight Show - tonight. NOW (finally) we might get a better story that the silly superficial questions asked by the news media. The news spots (all the news that's fit to print?) basically asked, "how do you feel about it?" (entertainment) Jay Leno, an entertainer, will get the news story out. Odd how it works... Richard |
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ANN Publisher Jim Campbell, flying just feet away from Scaled's SpaceShipOne in a Beechcraft Starship chase plane, was the first to report some indications of possible thermal or load damage on the aft portion of the spacecraft, just in front of the rocket bell. -- Wow!!! Flying just "feet" away!!! Did Zoom get his space wings also??? Pianome |
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"Pianome" wrote in message news:Ng1Cc.89931$HG.26418@attbi_s53...
ANN Publisher Jim Campbell, flying just feet away from Scaled's SpaceShipOne in a Beechcraft Starship chase plane, was the first to report some indications of possible thermal or load damage on the aft portion of the spacecraft, just in front of the rocket bell. -- Wow!!! Flying just "feet" away!!! Did Zoom get his space wings also??? Pianome I was listening to the chase planes and I thought that the high chase (the Alpha Jet) called that Space Ship 1 appeared to have some damage. It was possible load or thermal damage,great trick for the mooz to be in both planes at once. They had three chase planes the Alpha Jet was the high chase,The Beech Starship was for medium altitudes and a Extra 300 for low chase. Mooz probably logged time in all three Monday. I did see the nitwits by-line on a photo for Reuters in USA Today. Bet that he fed them one of his lines of B.S. he has alot of them. Frank |
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http://www.space.com/missionlaunches...ss_040621.html
"Private Spaceship Encounters Glitches in Record-Setting Flight" Betsy |
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"Pianome" wrote in message news:Ng1Cc.89931$HG.26418@attbi_s53...
ANN Publisher Jim Campbell, flying just feet away from Scaled's SpaceShipOne in a Beechcraft Starship chase plane, was the first to report some indications of possible thermal or load damage on the aft portion of the spacecraft, just in front of the rocket bell. -- Wow!!! Flying just "feet" away!!! Did Zoom get his space wings also??? Zoom probably went to some FBO in Florida on Monday, and managed to get a ride in a Starship, making sure he was in the air at the same time that SpaceShipOne was in the air in Mojave, listening to CNN on the intercom. Lets see.. approximately 2700 miles between Mojave and Florida. 2700 times 5280 feet = 14,256,000 feet. So when you think about it, his statement was not a lie at all.. He was just "feet" away at the time (14,256,000 of 'em) |
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Richard Lamb wrote
NOW (finally) we might get a better story that the silly superficial questions asked by the news media. How about this Richard: America has returned to manned space launches... and it's not NASA! We rocked around in an RV all night in 40 kt winds the night before and were worried that the launch was going to be scrubbed. But luckily high pressure was over the area and wind died down right before taxi out. My friend Bubba flew Richard Branson in to Mojave in a high dollar three blade helo and then landed him back on the top of the theme restaurant at LAX (he just can't seem to make a low profile entry anywhere!) William Shantner was supposedly there as well as Buzz Aldrin. Most of the event was covered by a local FM station but they screwed it up pretty bad so we just listened to the scanner. The wind was still blowing stiff after t/o on top of our RV so I missed a lot of the air to air conversation, but if anybody wants, I'll try to narrate what I saw in detail. The test pilot community let me in on a little secret: a major control failure occurred during launch and the gyro Rutan used for attitude control tumbled (lost alignment.) This caused an unplanned departure from the vertical profile. Mike M. took over manually and saved the son of a bitch just in time! However, this S-turn maneuver put them over 20 miles off course on the re-entry window! They still made the downwind gear-down position no sweat. I'm surprised they didn't relate this drama to the media (did they?) since it kind of parallels John Glenn's re-entry problems (except this was on launch.) Rutan plans to go into orbit next. Maybe if the media isn't smart enough to know about this it's better; I just don't know. I worried that the shuttle cock had to work perfectly twice in a row and felt like this was a 50/50 operation. Burt had told an engineer who works for him when the project began: "The problem with NASA is that they're not killing enough astronauts." Burt is a genius in my mind because he is willing to hang it way out there and try things no one else would dare. For example: the attitude control system when the vehicle is out of the atmosphere is just compressed air! What would happen if a little moisture froze up the attitude air valves? The whole thing was a complete cliff hanger! It is equivalent in my mind to watching the Mayflower disappear over the horizon bound for the new world. I'll never forget it. pacplyer |
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pacplyer wrote:
The whole thing was a complete cliff hanger! It is equivalent in my mind to watching the Mayflower disappear over the horizon bound for the new world. I'll never forget it. pacplyer Amen, Pacman. I only got to watch on CNN, but I was on the edge of my seat, even during the commercials. A few weeks ago, bored outta what's left of my mind, I picked up a few library books on the early space program. I had read all the hero stuff years back. "The Right Stuff" and "Apollo 13" tended to emphasize the glory with precious little hard technical details. But "Lost Moon", Lovell's side of the Apollo 13 story, and most especially Gene Krantz's "Failure is Not an Option" gets right into the nuts and bolts of those early days. They better describe not just what happened, but why and how it happened. It's down right scary how critical the most minor details are when entering a new environment that is as hostile as space. Your comment about a how a little moisture in an air tank could freeze up a valve, potentially causing the complete loss of the vehicle was very much to the point. Remember the old adage? "Aviation is not, of itself, inherently dangerous. But to a greater extent than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity, or neglect". For space flight, I'd bump that up an order of magnitude (or two?). Gus Grissom is quoted saying, "If we die we want people to accept it. We hope that if anything happens to us it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life". And he did. In the aftermath of the Apollo 1 fire, NASA took a year (and $75 mil) to redesign the space craft, mature their mental attitudes, and yes, did come back with a much safer vehicle. Quite obviously, this was the beginning of the "failure is not an option" mentality that took us to the moon and back successfully. I doubt that public attitude (as shaped by the press) would have allowed for another disaster of that magnitude during the moon race. But if Burt were to be lost (Heaven forbid, Please!), end of story. Richard |
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