Posted by
Hemos
on from the good-news-for-the-space-industry dept.
jhittner writes "Space.com is reporting a reusable rocket plane designed by XCOR Aerospace to carry future travelers to space has succeeded in its first piloted flight test"
Does that mean that someone has been actually sent to space using this vehicle?
No. As described in the article, this test was a takeoff followed by a few hundred metres of flight near the ground followed by landing, to see if the craft was airworthy.
*Also* as described in the article, this isn't a craft that can achieve stable orbit. It's intended for sub-orbital flight to orbital altitude, which is a *lot* easier to do. The company feels that tourists will still pay for it. This project also lets them fine-tune their reusable rocket technology.
An impressive and useful engineering project.
Re:Believe it, but read what "it" is.
by
jheinen
·
· Score: 5
I have a hard time believing *this* aircraft could ever achieve suborbital flight. It's a fiberglass homebuilt, and has no provision for things like pressurization. There's also no way it could carry enough fuel to get it that high. This is merely a testbed to see if they could build a rocket and attach it to a plane.
-Vercingetorix
-- -Vercingetorix
"Necessitas non habet legem." -St. Augustine
Re:Believe it, but read what "it" is.
by
JavaPriest
·
· Score: 3
An impressive and useful engineering project...
Their goal is impressive, but the plane (or what would one call it) isn't really. There seems to be little space left in the vehicle for these tourists (one, maybe two very small seats), and from the size of this bird I wonder if its range will be more than a couple of miles. By the time it gets sub-orbital, all fuel will have been combusted.
But maybe that's the (main) reason they only get sub-orbital.
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Does that mean that someone has been actually sent to space using this vehicle?
No. As described in the article, this test was a takeoff followed by a few hundred metres of flight near the ground followed by landing, to see if the craft was airworthy.
*Also* as described in the article, this isn't a craft that can achieve stable orbit. It's intended for sub-orbital flight to orbital altitude, which is a *lot* easier to do. The company feels that tourists will still pay for it. This project also lets them fine-tune their reusable rocket technology.
An impressive and useful engineering project.