

Powered flight could be coming soon






Sources: Virgin Galactic, NBC News

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RE: Count me in
By BRB29 on 4/15/2013 12:42:24 PM , Rating: 2
lol did i just get voted down for my willingness to pay for a flight?

RE: Count me in
By topkill on 4/15/2013 12:57:20 PM , Rating: 2
I guess someone on here thinks it's some kind of commie plot and you're really looking to get a subsidy???


RE: Count me in
By Redwin on 4/15/2013 1:20:37 PM , Rating: 3
No, you were voted down because your comment betrays a misunderstanding of the subject at hand, though I'd like to point out that the guy who responded to you about space being 50 miles, not 50k ft, has an even worse misunderstanding.

The Virgin Galactic spaceplane is a suborbital flight. This means it goes up to the edge of space (About 68 miles IIRC) and then falls back down, gliding to a landing. This gets you about 5 min of weightlessness at the peak of the trajectory, and you can see the curvature of the earth and blackness of space above you.

To go up for "a couple days" you would need to reach orbital velocity. While doing its up-down suborbital flight the Virgin Galactic spaceplane accelerates to a bit above Mach 3. This is quite fast, but nowhere near orbital speed, which is somewhere around mach 25. So... SpaceShip2 could never take you to orbit, and would not be able to survive re-entry even if it could.

The 50k ft drop was just a glide test simulating the end of a real flight, with the oxidizer (but not the fuel) running through the engine.

RE: Count me in
By Amiga500 on 4/15/2013 1:37:35 PM , Rating: 3
Indeed. This sub-orbital space-tourism stuff is as far from pukka space-flight as a Prius is from a Formula 1 car.

Not that it isn't a worthwhile business venture as it is the most efficient way to get money from those with the cash to burn who want to say "I've been to space".

RE: Count me in
By BRB29 on 4/15/2013 2:31:59 PM , Rating: 2
I know bro, but you're reading way too much into a comment. I am not here to elaborate or rewrite an article.

all i said was if they can give me a 2 day trip for 250k then I'm game. I don't want to pay 200k for 5 mins of weightlessness. It may not happen for another 20-30 years but this is progress to a reliable affordable space launch. It will get there soon.

RE: Count me in
By JesterDay on 4/16/2013 2:54:55 AM , Rating: 2
I understand just fine. What I'm saying just as MrBlastman said from the original 2010 article is ..until it actually goes into space and returns's just a concept, nothing more. A way to get funding. Most likely this "spacecraft" will never make it into space. Possibly a few revised versions later in the future..but I don't think this one will safely hit space and return.

RE: Count me in
By delphinus100 on 4/17/2013 7:13:37 PM , Rating: 2

100km, or 62.5 miles, or 328,000 feet. Also known as the 'VonKarman line' At that altitude or greater, the air is so thin that in order to get enough lift to avoid stalling, a plane would have to be moving at orbital velocity, anyway...

However, NASA/USAF did give astronaut wings to test pilots who flew the X-15 (or anything else that can) above 50 miles.

And for nuclear detonation purposes, it's considered to be a 'space burst' (as opposed to 'airburst') above 100,000 feet...

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