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Russia Unveils Space Shuttle for Tourists
joestump98 writes: "Yahoo! News is running a story about those crazy, cash strapped, Russians building a space shuttle for tourists. For under $100,000 you can take a one-hour flight that includes a mere 3 minutes of weightlessness. Apparently the flights are to start around 2004/2005." 21mhz adds a link to this press release from Russia's Myasishchev Design Bureau, writing: "On close examination, it turns out to be a downscaled version of Buran."
I should be studying.... but hey I can FP!
... miserable...
Now, "to the russan front" will have a new meaning :-)
Smile, don't click...
weightlessness cost 30,000$ a minute? yeouch!
I'm not sure what the design is the article refers too, but if it's a vertical takeoff shuttle, I think the experience of lift-off alone would justify the expense (if I had that kinda money). I mean, you can be weightless in a vomit comet for less (I think), but you sure can't blast straight up into heaven.
For under $100,000 you can take a one-hour flight that includes a mere 3 minutes of weightlessness.
:D
Order today
----- Whats wrong with this picture? http://www.revoh.org:1234/whatswrong
If you'd like to see a picture of the craft, it's on the BBC.
ta lata tati lati tata......c ata catacatacatacatacatacatacatacatacatacatac !!!> ... Auf Wiedersehen..."
:-(
ta lata tati lati tata......
-Hep Dort !
<tacatacatacatac !!!>
-Mein Leben !!!!
<tacatacatacatacatacatacatacatacatacatacata
"... Eva
This is a sad story that makes me cry everytime I think about it
Smile, don't click...
For under $100,000 you can take a one-hour flight that includes a mere 3 minutes of weightlessness
If its weightlessnes you are after, wouldn't it be a damn sight cheeper just to put a plane into a dive and float arround for a bit..... as in an astronoughts training.
(The plane is in free-fall.... Exacly the same effect as being in orbit)
What do you get for your monney other than going on a plane that goes very high (tm) ?
Anyone quoted by a reporter knows how little they understand
Don't believe what you read is the truth.
Russia .Unveils .Space .Shuttle .for .Tourists .Posted .by .timothy .on .Friday .March .15, .@05:24AM .from .the .goes-up-goes-down-da .dept. . .joestump98 .writes: . .oOo .Yahoo! .N
ews .is .running .a .story .about .those .crazy, .cash .strapped, .Russians .building .a .space .shuttle .for .to
urists. .For .under .$100,000 .you .can .take .a .one-hour .flight .that .includes .a .mere .3 .minutes .of .weig
htlessness. .Apparently .the .flights .are .to .start .around .2004/2005. .oOo .21mhz .adds .a .link .to .thi
s .press .release .from .Russia's .Myasishchev .Design .Bureau, .writing: .oOo .On .c
lose .examination, .it .turns .out .to .be .a .downscaled .version .of .Buran.oOo
Smile, don't click...
To this now the russians are the crazy capitalists and it's us with the draconian anti-freedom laws (DMCA).
I know I'm going to hell, I'm just trying to get good seats.
The makers of this new spaceship believe there is a huge untapped market of would-be space tourists - ordinary people willing to pay for the holiday of a lifetime.
I don't know about you, but I sure as hell don't consider anyone able to pay $100,000 for 3 minutes of weightlessness normal.
But I must admit, it's a cool idea and brings us 1 step closer to a trip to the moon costing as much as a flight from New York to London. But hell, even the cost of that flight is out of my price range.
Looking for hardware (Currently need: Large Etch-a-Sketch) Have one? See my journal!
OR however many miles high they will take us... but thats the important part!!
1 pilot.. and room for 2!!!
3 minute quickie in space for 100 grand.. 200 if yer payin for your partner... now that will be the new IN thing... hehe...
Eating a woman's pussy is about the most wonderful thing you can do for her. It makes her feel loved, admired, sexy, and of course it makes her cum like crazy. Many women prefer it to intercourse, and for most, it is the easiest way to cum with a man. You may have the littlest dick on the planet, but if you give great head, you will be appreciated as a fabulous lover. Yes, it's that important. Besides, lots of women expect it these days - you might as well know what you're doing.
First off, guys seem to have a strange love/hate relationship with women's genitalia. Guys that can't wait to get their dick into one are often reluctant to put their face "down there". For every guy who says he loves to eat pussy, there's another one who's squeamish. Women know this, and it affects their ability to lay back and enjoy the experience. There is nothing more exciting to a woman than to know that her partner finds her delicious. Don't be coy; tell her. When a guy fingers a lady and then smells, licks, sucks the juice off his finger and sighs as if in heaven, she knows this is her lucky day.
What if your sweet lady doesn't smell or taste very sweet? Don't suffer. (Don't complain, either.) Take a nice hot shower or bath together. Lather up both of your bodies and slide them together. It's like a whole body fuck. Soap up her vulva, washing between her outer and inner lips. Spread her lips apart and gently wash her clitoris. Hey, don't stop - this feels great! Run your soapy hand down the crack of her ass, and rub a finger all around her anus. You can stick one finger in and wash around inside too, if you anticipate any anal play, and I suggest you do. But don't put those soapy fingers up her vagina. Instead, rinse them off well and stick one or two inside, making a circular motion. Think about washing the inside of a tall glass - same thing. Now wasn't that fun? And now you can feel free to let your tongue wander anywhere it pleases...
So now what? You've found a comfy spot to play, you've been kissing passionately, your tongues darting around each other's mouths like playful otters. You've moved down to nibble one of her hardening nipples and she's starting to groan, grinding her pelvis against your stomach. STOP. I know it was just starting to get good. But was she really groaning and humping you, or was it your own excitement you were detecting? I strongly prefer to be excited before a guy starts plunging his tongue into my inner recesses. Use your judgement, and kiss, lick, and fondle your way down her stomach, up her thighs, until she's arching up her back trying to get you to eat her. Of course, if she really was groaning and grinding, go for it... I also don't particularly enjoy a guy endlessly nibbling my inner thigh while my clit is quivering in anticipation.
POSITIONS
If the woman you are with is somewhat hesitant about your going down on her, start off with her lying on her back, perhaps half-sitting. Lay down between her legs, with her legs over your shoulders. She may enjoy laying or sitting at the edge of the bed with you kneeling. She can also straddle your face, but be prepared to get very wet. There are endless varieties of positions where you can press your face up to her cunt, some of which strike me as more acrobatic than erotic, but feel free to experiment. And then there's 69...
69 is one of my favorite positions. On the plus side, you both get to enjoy the sublime sensations of getting head, simultaneously. The upside down positioning of a woman's pussy and your mouth is an easy fit and there's more room for your hands. On the negative side, it's a less than ideal position for a woman to give head. Plus, if you need to read this article, you may be better off concentrating your energies on pleasing her, without too much distraction. But even for experienced 69'ers, it's easy to short-change your partner. "It feels soooo good, I'm just gonna stop for a second and concentrate on what you're...aaaarrrgghhh". Get the picture? Some show of will-power is in order.
69 can be done male on top, female on top, or side by side. The latter two are easier, though it's more restful with both partners laying down. Some women love being licked on all fours, so if female-on-top 69 drives her wild, take the hint and find some other ways to eat her in this position. I happen to enjoy male on top, but for many women this is a sure choking position. If a woman can, or wants to try, to deep throat you, this is THE position. When her head is thrust back you can really slide your cock all the way down her throat. But don't forget what you're supposed to be doing!
So there you are staring at it - the mysterious hole from whence you came, and into which you hope to cum again... First, an anatomy lesson...
THE CLITORIS
Before I go any further, a few words about the clitoris, accent on the first syllable. Most of you know it, but for those who don't, it is THE woman's sex organ, period. It may feel great to be fucked vaginally, anally or otherwise, but if the stimulation is not right there, on the clitoris, you're ignoring the place that's going to make her cum, and presumably that's why you're reading this, right? It's right there at the top juncture of her inner lips, a small knob of pink flesh. This is where it's at boys, and don't forget it. Almost any licking and sucking of the labia or vaginal entrance is going to feel just dandy; just remember that this is pleasurable teasing, not the main event. I can't tell you how many guys have thrust their tongues up my vagina thinking that this was going to make me cum. They were wrong. Of course, with a little manual stimulation....but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Women feel differently about how much direct stimulation they can take on their clitoris. Some women will adore it if you suck hard on their exposed clits, others will shriek in pain. You may encounter a woman who is completely unable to take direct stimulation of her clit; the goal is still the same, but you'll have to stimulate it indirectly, such as through her labia. IMPORTANT NOTE: Often, what is unacceptably rough at first may be fine after she's very excited. The fact is, most women really need a good bit of stimulation before a targeted attack on their clitoris, but once they're there, that's where you want to devote your attention.
The key here is go slow, ask questions, and if she's comfortable with it, leave the lights on and really explore. Body language often does tell what feels best, but I promise, she will appreciate your attentiveness if you ask outright. If she seems shy, get her to guide your hands and mouth with her own hand, and pay attention. If she starts bucking up against your mouth and gasping in ragged little breaths, for God's sake, don't use this opportunity to try something different. Just keep doing exactly what you're doing.
THE TONGUE
I want to reiterate, there is almost nothing you can do that won't feel terrific, so relax! I promise, you may be confused and uncertain, but she's in heaven. Any licking and sucking of the labia, vaginal entrance, clitoris, or anal area is going to feel just great, and I'd no sooner tell guys to "do it exactly like this" than I would tell every chef to follow the same recipe. But for those who are compelled to RTFM, here are a few techniques that you might like to try:
Try lapping her pussy from vaginal entrance up to her clit, leaving your tongue soft and jaw relaxed. This is a good way to start your tonguing.
Run your tongue between the inner and outer labia on one side, while holding the two together with your lips. Good job, now do the other side.
Fuck her pussy with your tongue - in and out, around and around, etc. This feels nice. Not wonderful or incredible or earth-shaking; nice.
Spread her outer lips with your hand. Then, with your tongue pointed and stiff, gently flick here and there. Feel free to roam, but keep coming back to her clit. This drives some women wild, and others can't take it. Some may prefer that you always leave your tongue soft, so when you try this, pay attention to whether those moans are ecstacy or pain.
The following techniques should not be introduced until your partner is really hot (i.e. she's no longer coherent). These are very intense actions which may be "too much" for some women, even when nearing orgasm.
With her clit still exposed, give it a quick little suck - pulling it into your mouth briefly and letting it go. This is a lot like licking a bit of cake batter off of your pinky. This feels incredible, and is a fine thing to do if you feel like torturing her (see PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER below).
Take her exposed clit into your mouth and gently (at first, anyway) suck on it, simultaneously flicking your tongue over and around it. This can be done very lightly or very aggressively, and combined with fingering, will usually rapidly produce an intense orgasm.
Another choice technique involves rolling your tongue into a tube. If you can't do this with your tongue, you can't learn it - it's genetic. For those who can, this works best in an inverted or 69 position. Roll your tongue into a tube around the shaft of her clitoris. Slide it up and down; in effect, your tongue makes a tiny pussy for her clit to fuck. This also is likely to bring her over the edge.
FINGERS
Fingers are a valuable adjunct to eating pussy. Most women masturbate by pressing a finger or fingers over their clit, possibly "thru" the skin of their inner or outer lips, and vigorously rubbing in a circular or back-and-forth direction. You can do this too, and it is most helpful to ask, or better yet, have her show you how she likes it done. You will never be a good lover until you can bring your woman to climax with your hands. When you fuck her from behind, or up her ass, or really in any position which doesn't allow her to simultaneously rub her vulva against your body, reach down or around and rub her clit. I know it's distracting, but just do it anyway. One important point to note: make sure that your fingers are well lubricated. There is nothing more uncomfortable (and sometimes downright painful) than a dry finger roughly rubbed across one's clitoris.
Of course, that's not all you can do with your fingers. One technique which is very exciting is to spread her lips wide apart with one hand, and with your index finger straight like a pencil, flick the side of it rapidly across her clit. This motion alone will often bring a woman to orgasm. Combining this with the addition of some tongue action elsewhere is nothing short of bliss.
Sticking one or more fingers inside her vagina is also wonderful. You can simply move them in and out (this feels best with at least two or three fingers, pushed in hard), or wriggling them around. A particularly intense motion is to face your hand so that you have two fingers inside her with your palm facing the front of her body. Now move your fingers rapidly, as if waving hello. You are aiming to stimulate a particular part of the woman's vagina - namely the lower anterior (front) part. When combined with sucking her clit, this is nearly certain to bring her to a fast and intense climax.
An excellent way to begin manual stimulation is to stick one (and later two) fingers inside her, with your palm cupped over the mons area. I'm talking about that fleshy "mound" over her pubic bone. Your finger goes in and out and the ball of your hand is pressed hard against her vulva. You may want to rub or even shake the entire area with your palm.
Fingers also do nice things to tight little butt holes, but that's a whole other story...
ANAL PLAY
This stuff is purely optional. If anal play doesn't turn you on, don't do it. If you're uncomfortable, she'll pick up on your feelings and start wondering if it's her pussy that's turning you off. Don't feel that you can't be a good lover without anal play; you can.
Cleanliness is of the essence. (remember that nice soapy shower?) Scoop out some luscious juices (from a very wet pussy) with your finger and rub it around her anus. (If she isn't well lubricated, saliva works too.) If that's all you or she feels comfortable with, fine - it still feels great. But I think most women enjoy the feel of a finger pushed up their ass while they're being fucked or eaten. You need to be gentle, possibly even leaving your finger still. Try moving it in and out a little, or around in a circle. If she starts moaning, you know you're doing something right.
It's really fun to feel a woman's anus rhythmically squeezing your finger as she cums. (And it's great for her, too) You're probably thinking about what that would feel like around your dick, and it's something you should certainly explore. Ass-fucking is somewhat out of the scope of this article, but suffice to say, if she doesn't like a finger up her butt, she sure as hell won't want your big dick up there. Even if she does enjoy this sort of play, she may still be somewhat apprehensive about putting something so large up there. The keys to success are sufficient (i.e. copious amounts of) lubrication (a water-soluble type such as K-Y, which is safe for condoms), relaxation on her part, and a slow, gentle, approach. She'll certainly tell you if she wants you to thrust harder or deeper. And remember, if you want to feel that delicious squeezing around your cock, reach around and diddle that clit!
As for anallingus - why not? Don't feel like you HAVE to do it to satisfy your woman. But if the idea turns you on, great. Let your tongue rove as it pleases. It's not necessary to actually put your tongue inside her butt to stimulate the area. Back and forth, around and around, you get the picture.
One hygiene note: once that finger (or your penis) has been inside her ass, don't even think about putting it anywhere else. Carelessness in this regard can cause a horrendous infection.
MENSTRUATION
I haven't met a lot of men who are completely comfortable going down on a woman when she has her period. But some are. Most women are at their horniest before and sometimes during their period. You should definitely find a way to make her cum when she's bleeding, be it thru intercourse, manual, or oral stimulation. If you feel comfortable going down on her, great. It's perfectly safe. You may suggest that she insert a tampon, and then wash up. (As you now know, you don't need to get anywhere near her vagina to make her cum.) Or you could lay down a few old towels, turn out the lights, and forget about it.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
I think variety is crucial. Some guy posted an article detailing a road map of kissing and licking (first here, then here, etc.) Much better to do the unexpected; sometimes a hungry, aggressive approach, other times a laid-back, leisurely one. You can even even include your nose, or your chin into the act. Start slow, that's the key, and let your lover guide the speed of the crescendo. In all cases, start gently. Roughness and clumsiness are big turn-offs. As she gets more and more excited, pay more attention to her clitoris. When she's three breathes away from cumming, moving your mouth off or away from her clit is agony. That's fine if you're intentionally torturing her, just understand that this is what you are doing. The only prohibition is to be reasonably gentle with her clit. Nibbling or biting is fine elsewhere, but we're talking about a sensitive spot.
Speaking of prolonging the agony... I think this is great fun. Bring your partner just to the edge of orgasm, and stop. This is not easy unless you really know your lover well. Instead, just have her help you. Say, "Grab my head and stop me just before you think you're gonna cum." Then take your sweet time. Blow on her clit, take it into your mouth just briefly, flick it just the very slightest bit. You will have this woman squirming and moaning like she's dying. Finger her deeply, enjoy the ecstasy you are imparting, and finally, have pity. Let the poor woman cum.
UUUUNNNNGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!! (or, I'M COMING!!!)
Okay, she's practically suffocating you, she's pressed so hard against your face; she's screaming and bucking up in the air; you feel her pussy contracting wildly - how long should you keep it up?? The simple answer is, until she makes you stop. Some women may stop you after five seconds from the start of their climax, others may be able to roll right into another orgasm if you keep going. Do come up for air, but remember, her excitement does not drop off as sharply as yours does. Play it safe by continuing the stimulation.
How many times does she need to cum? Some women are very content to have one orgasm. A whole lot of women would really like to cum again, but need about five minutes to recoup. Many women are so sensitive right after they cum that they may push your head violently away. This doesn't necessarily mean they've had enough, only that you need to stop for a few minutes. In fact most women, given a short rest between, are capable of cumming again and again. A smaller percentage of women are able to cum repeatedly with continued stimulation. This is the much-touted multiple-orgasm that is experienced by a minority of women. I know this makes it difficult to know when enough is enough, but there's a simple answer: ask her.
GODI'MSOEXCITEDITFEELSGREATBUTIJUSTCAN'TCOME
It happens to all of us sometimes - distraction, embarrassment, anxiety, or just an inability to "let go". What do you do about it? The first question is, can she easily bring herself to a climax in the privacy of her own home. If the answer is no - then she needs to do some homework. There are two books on the subject that I know of: For Yourself: The Fulfillment of Female Sexuality by Lonnie Barbach, and Sex for One: The Joy of Selfloving by Betty Dodson; pick up one. Then tell her to read it, study it, and practice, practice, practice!
Now if your partner is orgasmic only when alone - ask her point blank: "Is there something different I can do?" Many women are shy about criticizing their lovers, but if asked outright will surprise you with a very specific answer. It may be a simple matter of mechanics, like a little to right please, or not so rough, or more pressure and faster. Ah... perfect.
But suppose everything is wonderful. She says you're doing everything right but she just can't cum. There are two probable causes: selfconsciousness and/or self-loathing. For women who can't help watching themselves, the best approach is to eliminate anything that focuses her attention on what the two of you are doing. This is a "be here now" kind of thing - definitely not an introspective activity. Get that mirror off the ceiling. Dim the lights or turn them off completely. Put on some soft music. Share a glass of port. (I said A glass - getting drunk will definitely not help). Have her lay on her back, or propped up comfortably with some pillows. This is not the time for her to sit on your face, or the edge of the bed, or standing up against a wall. Arrange a time when you can devote a long period to eating her pussy, and then just keep it up. Forget everything I said about asking her questions - just close your eyes and get into it. I know this can be a difficult and exhausting exercise, but she will be extravagantly thankful for your efforts. It gets easier each time. If all else fails, get accustomed to masturbating together. Gradually begin to add your stimulation to her own, right before she's about to cum anyway. Over time, you can take over completely.
For women who themselves feel that their cunts are dirty or distasteful, all of the above methods may be helpful, but the underlying issue must also be addressed. I am amazed at how many women are ambivalent about their own genitals. They don't love "that part" of their body, and they can't believe that you would either. Yes, it is important to be clean. But clean means a daily shower which includes washing the vulva. It doesn't mean vainly attempting to remove every trace of smell or taste. The natural fragrance and secretions of a healthy woman are beautiful and erotic. Hopefully you agree (and if not, try hard to cultivate this attitude). When she learns to love her pussy, she will be infinitely more comfortable with your loving it too.
How to Eat Pussy
Hey, I have a lot of respect for all you guys who like to eat pussy because there are too few of you out there. And I'm not the only woman who says this. Furthermore, some of you guys who are giving it the old college try are not doing too well, so maybe this little lesson will help you out. When a woman finds a man who gives good head, she's found a treasure she's not going to let go of too quickly. This is one rare customer and she knows it. She won't even tell her girlfriends about it or that guy will become the most popular man in town. So, remember, most guys can fuck, and those who can usually do it satisfactorily, but the guy who gives good head, he's got it made.
Most women are shy about their bodies. Even if you've got the world's most gorgeous woman in bed with you, she's going to worry about how you like her body. Tell her it's beautiful, tell her which parts you like best, tell her anything, but get her to trust you enough to let you down between her legs.
Now stop and look at what you see. Beautiful, isn't it? There is nothing that makes a woman more unique than her pussy. I know. I've seen plenty of them. They come in all different sizes, colors and shapes; some are tucked inside like a little girl's cunnie and some have thick luscious lips that come out to greet you. Some are nested in brushes of fur and others are covered with transparent fuzz. Appreciate your woman's unique qualities and tell her what makes her special.
Women are a good deal more verbal than men, especially during love-making. They also respond more to verbal love, which means, the more you talk to her, the easier it will be to get her off. So all the time you're petting and stroking her beautiful pussy, talk to her about it.
Now look at it again. Gently pull the lips apart and look at her inner lips, even lick them if you want to. Now spread the tops of her pussy up until you can find her clit. Women have clits in all different sizes, just like you guys have different sized cocks. It doesn't mean a thing as far as her capacity for orgasm. All it means is more of her is hidden underneath her foreskin.
Whenever you touch a woman's pussy, make sure your finger is wet. You can lick it or moisten it with juices from inside her. Be sure, by all means, to wet it before you touch her clit because it doesn't have any juices of it's own and it's extremely sensitive. Your finger will stick to it if it's dry and that hurts. But you don't want to touch her clit anyway. You have to work up to that. Before she becomes aroused, her clit is too delicate to be handled.
Approach her pussy slowly. Women, even more so than men, love to be teased. The inner part of her thigh is her most tender spot. Lick it, kiss it, make designs on it with the tip of your tongue. Come dangerously close to her pussy, then float away. Make her anticipate it.
Now lick the crease where her leg joins her pussy. Nuzzle your face into her bush. Brush your lips over her slit without pressing down on it to further excite her. After you've done this to the point where your lady is bucking up from her seat and she's straining to get more of you closer to her, then put your lips right on top of her slit.
Kiss her, gently, then harder. Now use your tongue to separate her pussy lips and when she opens up, run your tongue up and down between the layers of pussy flesh. Gently spread her legs more with your hands. Everything you do with a woman you're about to eat must be done gently.
Tongue-fuck her. This feels define. It also teases the hell out of her because by now she wants some attention given to her clit. Check it out. See if her clit has gotten hard enough to peek out of it's covering. If so, lick it. If you can't see it, it might still be waiting for you underneath. So bring your tongue up tot he top of her slit and feel for her clit. You may barely experience it's presence. But even if you can't feel the tiny pearl, you can make it rise by licking the skin that covers it. Lick hard now and press into her skin.
Gently pull the pussy lips away and flick your tongue against the clit, hood covered or not. Do this quickly. This should cause her legs to shudder. When you sense she's getting up there toward orgasm, make your lips into an O and take the clit into your mouth. Start to suck gently and watch your lady's face for her reaction. If she can handle it, begin to suck harder. If she digs it, suck even harder. Go with her. If she lifts her pelvis into the air with the tension of her rising orgasm, move with her, don't fight her. Hang on, and keep your hot mouth on her clit. Don't let go. That's what she'll be saying too: 'Don't stop. Don't ever stop!'
There's a reason for that, most men stop too soon. Just like with cock sucking, this is something worth learning about and worth learning to do well. I know a man who's a lousy fuck, simply lousy, but he can eat pussy like nobody I know and he never has trouble getting a date. Girls are falling all over him.
But back to your pussy eating session...There's another thing you can do to intensify your woman's pleasure. You can finger-fuck her while she's enjoying your clit-licking talents. Before, curing or after. She'll really like it. In addition to the erogenous zones surrounding her clit, a woman has another extremely sensitive area at the roof of her vagina. This is what you rub up against when you're fucking her. Well, since your cock is pretty far away from your mouth, your fingers will have to do the fucking.
Take two fingers. One is too skinny and three is too wide and therefore can't get deep enough. Make sure they're wet so you don't irritate her skin. Slide them inside, slowly at first, then a little faster. Fuck her with them rhythmically. Speed up only when she does. Listen to her breathing.
She'll let you know what to do. If you're sucking her clit and finger-fucking her at the same time, you're giving her far more stimulation than you would be giving her with your cock alone. So you can count on it that she's getting high on this. If there's any doubt, check her out for symptoms. Each woman is unique. You may have one who's nipples get hard when she's excited or only when she's having an orgasm. Your girl might flush red or begin to tremble. Get to know her symptoms and you'll be a more sensitive lover.
When she starts to have an orgasm, for heaven's sakes, don't let go of that clit. Hang in there for the duration. When she starts to come down from the first orgasm, press your tongue along the underside of the clit, leaving your lips covering the top. Move your tongue in and out of her cunt. If your fingers are inside, move them a little too, gently though, things are extremely sensitive just now.
If you play your cards right, you'll get some multiple orgasms this way. A woman stays excited for a full hour after she's had an orgasm. Do you realize the full impact of that information? The potential? One woman was clocked at 56 orgasms at one sitting. Do you know what effect you would have on a woman you gave 56 orgasms to? She'd be yours as long as you wanted her.
The last advice I have for you is this: After you've made her come, make her your slave by giving her the best head she's ever had, don't leave her alone just yet. Talk to her, stroke her body, caress her breasts. Keep making love to her quietly until she's come all the way down. A man can get off and go to sleep in the same breath and feel no remorse, no sense of loss. But a woman by nature requires some sensitivity from her lover in those first few moments after sex.
Oral sex can be the most exciting sexual experiences you can have. But it's what you make it. Take your time, practice often, pay attention to your lover's signals, and most of all, enjoy yourself.
Female Oral Sex Techniques
TASTE:
In my experience, one of the main reasons that partners avoid female oral sex is due to a percieved or even experienced poor taste. While it is true that women run the range from pleasant (tasty!) to sour or uric tasting, there are easy steps to ensure that your partner will be tasting her sweetest.
First and most obviously, a good vigorous shower will do much to neutralize the taste of your partner. In fact, oral sex in the shower, while not a favorite method of mine, has a completely neutral taste if you stick to the upper regions of your partner's sex. If your partner has not showered recently, or has physically exerted herself recently, her taste will be much stronger. This, however, can be a good thing!
Secondly, foreplay will improve upon both the taste and the experience in general if your can get her juices flowing. I have never found an extremely aroused, wet woman to taste unpleasant. Quite the contrary!
FOREPLAY:
Do it! Take your time! Have fun! Experiment! A common male misunderstanding is that females are aroused most through physical contact. Not true. I have aroused women greatly simply by acting sexy. Tension is a wonderful tool, use it. If you can build tension to the point where the barest touch sends electric shivers through both of you, you can't lose! Similarly, even the best love techniques will not turn on a woman who isn't in the mood. (If you can get her in the mood, well then you're talking.)
Take your time, explore your partner (there's a lot more there than nipples and a clitoris!), build tension, have fun.
POSITIONS:
There are two basic positions that I have found very versitile and succesful. For a very comfortable session, have her lie on her back with legs spread and knees bent slightly. Lie on your stomach between her legs, put your right arm under her left leg and your left arm under her right - somewhat of an intimate hug. Now you should find your head situated conveniently and comfortably near the center of your attention.
Less comfortable, but a bit wilder is the following. Lie on your back, prop a couple of pillows (or fold one over) under your head. Have your partner kneel facing you with one knee on each side of your head, above your shoulders. The sexy part of this position (IMHO) is that your partner can look down at you and watch you eating her out. (Yum) Versatility and comfort are reduced for the giver, so I only occasionally partake in this position.
These are by no means the only positions. Again, experiment, have fun. If you can find a bed where your partner can lie down with her legs dangling off the bed and resting flat on the floor, you're in luck. Now you can have her sit just at the edge of the bed, lie back, and give you plenty of access while you kneel/sit in front of her sex.
GEOGRAPHY:
Woman are very different in some respects of their genitalia, but the major parts are the same. A woman's sex from the oral sex point of view consists of two sets of lips (outer and inner) that meet just below the vaginal opening and some variable distance above the clitoris; the vaginal opening (immediately above the nether meeting of above-mentioned lips), a smooth section of skin between the vaginal opening and the clitoris (I have no clue as to its technical name, hereafter it will be refered to as the "scav") and the clitoris and its surrounding folds.
If you get the chance, explore your partner in a location with decent lighting. Use your hand to spread her sex and explore her, find out what's where and what's what. Like I said earlier, women are different. Especially the location and shape of the clitoris. It can be buried, protruding, surrounded by many folds of flesh, or hanging out it the open. The best method I have found for finding your partner's clitoris (If all else fails, ask!), is to place a finger at the very base of her sex and gently run it up her scav until you feel a slight bump. That's it.
OK, ENOUGH OF THE DETAILS, NOW THE NITTY-GRITTY:
So your partner is showered, excited and feeling sexy. It's the big moment, what to do? Don't simply dive in. Take your time, excite her. In my opinion, I can usually tell how good my partner is at oral sex by how she "goes down" on me. By "going down" I mean the process by which she goes from kising my lips to sucking oh-so-wonderfully on my sex.
Depending on your partner, different methods of going down will work more effectively. If you've gotten to this point with your partner, you should have a fair idea of what she likes. Take advantage of that knowledge. One thing that I highly recommend however, is a sexy look. Sexy looks can make all the difference, and the best place to throw one in is as you're licking, sucking and kissing your way down her stomach stop, look up and smile devilishly.
Unbutton your partners jean's, pull the tabs back and kiss her newly exposed flesh. Unzip her pants, pull the tabs back as far as they can go and place light, tender kisses on her abdomen and around the top of her panties. Watch it, some women are very ticklish here!
(Note the above doesn't work so well if she doesn't have jeans on but you're all smart enough to figure it out...) Once you've removed everything but her panties, stop. You have a unique opportunity for further arousal. Kiss her legs and inner thighs with gentle kisses. Work your way up each leg and make a point of stopping at the line of her underwear. Kiss again along the top of her underwear, and along the other two borders.
Now move to her cotton (silk? lace? latex?) covered sex. Plant firm, dry kisses through her underwear on her sex, low and right around the vaginal entrance works best for me. If your partner is really excited, often her underwear will be damp and will smell (pleasantly) of her sex.
Removing the underwear is again a matter of choice. You know your partner best, I prefer either gently sliding it all the way off with my fingers, or pulling it part way down with my teeth first.
DIRECT KISSING:
It is not unusual for your partner's lips to be closed together. A very excited woman's lips may be slightly spread allready ("pouting"). Again, building tension can be accomplished by light kisses on either side of her sex as well as light blowing. (Do not inflate your partner! This can be very dangerous!!) Spreading her lips can be accomplished by placing your tongue first at the base of her sex, and then firmly running your tongue all the way up. Continue with a few long licks from the base of her sex all the way to the top past her clitoris. Vary the firmness of your tongue from hard and pointed to broad and soft.
THE BIG "O":
The best and most proven method of making your partner cum through oral sex is by repeated, rythmic stroking of her clitoris with your tongue. The tongue is uniquely suited for this purpose because of it's texture, versatility, and pliability. It is difficult (and tiring) to apply too much pressure to your partner's clitoris. Some women are much more sensitive than others however. Be receptive to any sharp gasps, you could be being too affectionate. If this is the case, move away from direct contact or adopt a gentler technique.
Repeated, rythmic stroking can be accomplished in a variety of ways. I prefer either rapid, repeated verticle licks with a firm, pointed tongue, or planting your tongue firmly against your partner's clitoris and vigorously shaking your head back and forth. (Tiring, maybe. But it's worth it!) If you are having trouble finding the correct angle or method for rhythmically lingually carresing her clitoris, or if you want to try something fun and new:
Toungue the abc's. No seriously! This is a great oral excercise on any part of the body. Toungue the abc's starting with lower case, and moving though upper case. (Heck, you could do the whole ANSI ASCII set if you'd like!) Be especially perceptive while you do this, vary your speed and watch for sharp intakes of breath - chances are you've hit the right angle. The abc's give a large variety of different strokes, so come back to this excersize as often as you'd like.
A general rule of thumb (tongue?) is to start slow and pick up the pace as you go along. This is definately a general rule though, feel free to break it by varying your rhythm, both slowly and predictably as well as quickly and startlingly.
OTHER FUN THINGS TO DO:
Lick between the inner and outer lips; penetrate the vagina deeply (a much stronger, iron-like taste here); "tease" the entrance to her vagina with rapid pokes of your toungue at varying depths; don't forget your hands, often a woman will feel a need or ache for something inside of her while very aroused, oblige her with a finger or two. Both kissing and manually manipulating your partner is tough, anyone with succesful methods is welcome to pipe in.
Talk to your partner, ask her what she likes. Experiment (if you can) with many different partners. What excites one woman a lot may not excite another as much, but may still be well worth trying. On the other hand, you may not notice a subtle pleasurable technique on one woman that can be easily learned on another. The better you know your parnter, the more effectively you can please her. Have fun!
A FINAL NOTE:
I tried to be a lot less pretentious than the male version of this article for a few reasons. The major one is that women are very different, the above suggestions may work wonderfully with one woman and so-so with another. Some women simply aren't responsive to oral sex due to strong moral constraints. Secondly, I am not an expert, though I love oral sex and have had the joy of pleasuring 10-20 women. Third, I am still young (18) and have a lot to learn.
So feel free to comment on what you've read (men and women) and reply either over the net or to me personally. Thanks. Hope you found this helpfull and enjoy!
Q. What is cunnilingus?
Cunnilingus is the fine art of making love to a vagina with your mouth and tongue. It is a delicate skill, requiring patience, practice, and dedication to get it right, but any woman you learn to do it right for will appreciate you all the more for it.
What applies to the penis applies to the vulva-- every one is different, requiring a different touch to make its owner happy. But few tools can equal the tongue for the amount of pleasure it can deliver to a happy vagina.
This article assumes that you know what a vulva looks like and can identify with some precision the mons veneris, labia majora, clitoral hood, clitoris, labia minora, urethra, vagina, and perineum, to name them (approximately) from top to bottom.
Q. How fast should I go?
This isn't an attack. Don't go after the clitoris like a fireman attacking a fire. Quite often at first, the clitoris is far too sensitive for direct stimulation. Lick around it, stimulating the hood, teasing her inner labia, tasting her. Take your time and listen to her. Some women make noise, and some do not. It will be a while before you learn exactly what your lover prefers as far as oral sex is concerned.
Some women may like additional stimulation-- a finger or two into the vagina, or perhaps even the anus. She may want your hands to reach up and play with her breasts, or she may want your fingers to hold her labia apart so that your tongue can get at her vulva more directly.
Q. I've heard cunnilingus doesn't taste good.
If the taste or smell bothers you or is a concern, ask her to wash first. Most people who enjoy cunnilingus agree that a clean vagina is a good, if acquired, taste.
As a woman nears her climax, she may want more direct stimulation. In general, fast, rhythmic stimulation is most effective at causing climax-- but there shouldn't be a rush to get there. Take your time and learn to appreciate what you can do for her.
Q. What about cunnilingus during menstruation?
Some people are particularly turned off at the suggestion of cunnilingus during menstruation. If it is a concern to you, then wait. A tampon may well hold the blood back, as will a diaphragm, but some men can't stand the taste anyway. If your partner is healthy, however, there is no particular danger in menstrual blood, and some women find that orgasms during their periods allievate cramps.
In my experience, when you try to explain to a man "in the moment" that he is doing oral sex (or sometimes anything) wrong, often the result is a disaster. You aren't into it, because you are trying to direct, and I guess for many guys it comes off as simply insulting. It isn't a very "supportive process," to borrow a friend's phraseology.
Example: "No, not there,...there..." (Quizzical looks, no change in behavior.)
Now, if you go looking for diagrams of women's vaginas, you will find yourself either looking at medical textbooks or special references, such as Our Bodies, Ourselves --- which, is presented as a "for women only" sort of thing. The original edition even gave this little rap to men about not buying it "for" women. Yeesh! Good book, but talk about "attitude." The new edition has thankfully dropped this negative proscription.
You will sometimes NOT even find a clear picture of a woman's vagina in a general sex reference, such as the original The Joy of Sex. And you won't find a discussion of the parts of the vulva in most places. Now, go look for a picture of a man's penis that is reasonably edifying, and you'll find them all over. I only discovered this when I tried to look it up, and since I had never purchased Our Bodies, Ourselves, I was SOL (corrected that, recently). I however, and all women, have a ready-made "reference manual," provided we have gotten over the idea, or never had it, that looking at it will somehow be a "bad thing." Men don't have this reference manual readily "at hand," at least if their partner, if they have one, is not immediately available and cooperative.
I have also read, and just reread, the Cunnilingus FAQ. Though it seemed excellent in terms of mood, style of approach, all the "beginning" stuff, I found when I applied her technique suggestions to me and my experience as a recipient, or my experience as a giver, it was a bit short on specifics. I am sure the described approach works very well for the woman who wrote it
So, you have gone through all the beginning motions, taking a reasonable amount of time, and you are starting to "get down to business." First, PLEASE turn on the lights. Working in the dark is for experts at best. I am assuming you are sitting between her legs, facing her, or some variation on this. Now really LOOK at what is there. Where her hair is (or was, some people shave) is the mons veneris, the pubic mound. If she is not aroused, everything is likely, but not guaranteed, to be enclosed within the outer lips or labia majora, the edges of the pubic mound that comes together to enclose her vulva.
As you spread this apart (she can bring her knees up and out, and/or you can use your hands), you will now see the inner folds of skin of the vulva, the inner lips or labia minora. These (usually) go all around the vaginal opening, and come in a variety of interesting and pleasing shapes and textures.
As you observe that this encircles the vaginal opening, at the top of this you will find what might look like a button or might look like a very tiny penis, covered by an additional flap of skin. The flap of skin is the "hood" of the clitoris, and is very sensitive, as is the clitoris. This is the female equivalent of the male foreskin, though it is much looser than that corresponding organ.
If you see what looks like a button underneath the hood, then what you are seeing is the glans of the clitoris, exactly equivalent to your own penis glans, or head of the penis. If you see a bit more than that, then there is probably some of the shaft of the clitoris extending in your partner. I stress this since most men would not be particularly enthused by a blow job that only gave attention to their penis head and extended not a centimeter below there. Many might find it annoying or even painful, depending on how rough their partner is with them and how sensitive they are to pain in that area. However, told "give attention to the clitoris," by fable and book, many brave soldiers run to do battle on the field of their woman's desires with their tongue, only to find their partner is telling them to please stop, it hurts, or it doesn't do anything for me. This may or may not be a comment on your technique, some women don't like oral sex. I would just like to suggest an approach that probably has a higher average success rate.
The shaft of the clitoris is attached internally, back into the body of the woman. Pressure on the spot above the glans and underneath the hood will generally give you access to the part of the shaft equivalent to the part of your penis that is towards your body, whereas underneath the glans will give you access to the part of the shaft that is equivalent to the part of your penis that is away from your body. It is likely that the skin directly below the glans will be functionally equivalent to what is for most men the most sensitive and pleasurable part of the penis for play, and the inner vaginal lips are also usually quite sensitive "in a good way." Going down/in/back, you may or may not see the urethra, if you do this is the location of the grafenberg spot (g-spot), which we have all heard on this newsgroup is quite varied in response, some women love stimulation there, others do not. Try licking your tongue around there, if it is visible, and see, in the course of your "investigations."
O.K., so now you have the picture. You did trim/file your nails first, didn't you? Play with your hands, play with your mouth, go all over, gently at first, increasing stimulation and focus as her body responds, and coming in "closer on" the clitoral area as she becomes more aroused. Lick, suck, point your tongue and apply pressure, use it like a "miniature penis" under the glans, penetrating her as you go, make little circles with your tongue, lick up and down along the skin in front of the clitoris, up and down the inner vaginal lips, etc. These are ideas, find some others, listen to her responses and comments. Remember to GO SLOW --- I believe impatience and expectations of quick response are "generally recognized as" the most common error in sexual encounters. Eventually the clitoris will become probably become erect, and stimulation that is "more direct" (like enclosing your mouth on the area and gently sucking) will stimulate a sufficient amount of the organ in question to be interesting. Watch what you are doing, and what happens, the entire area will become "engorged" and swollen if things are proceeding closer to orgasm.
Some women may not, or may prefer not, to orgasm this way. Most will probably, however, enjoy the experience a great deal. Hopefully this "explanation and comparison" to the corresponding male body parts will allow you to not be (still) in the dark with the lights on.
Ride the firecracker
Ok I just decided to skip the last two stanzas. Hope you like it!
I am into the copy and paste.
mo fo ker who you bullshit'n
why for only 10k you can visit the moon, and back in under a week.
now those facts are real and its a long and touching story i'm sure, however i so often see such bogus levels of service, such that a 100k price tag forces me to post.
Russia.Unveils.Space.Shuttle&nbs p;.for.Tourists.Posted.by. timothy.on.Friday.March.15 ,.@05:24AM.from.the.goes-u p-goes-down-da.dept...joestump98 .writes:..oOo.Yahoo! .News.is.running.a.story&n bsp;.about.those.crazy,.cash&nbs p;.strapped,.Russians.building.a .space.shuttle.for.tourist s..For.under.$100,000.you& nbsp;.can.take.a.one-hour. flight.that.includes.a.mer e.3.minutes.of.weightlessn ess..Apparently.the.flights  ;.are.to.start.around.2004 /2005..oOo.21mhz.adds.a&nb sp;.link.to.this.press.rel ease.from.Russia's.Myasishchev&n bsp;.Design.Bureau,.writing:.oOo .On.close.examination,.it& nbsp;.turns.out.to.be.a&nb sp;.downscaled.version.of.Buran. oOo
Smile, don't click...
You get to ride on the inside :)
Tom Newton
Russia.Unveils.Space.Shuttle&nbs p;.for.Tourists.Posted.by. timothy.on.Friday.March.15 ,.@05:24AM.from.the.goes~u p~goes~down~da.dept...joestump98 .writes:..oOo.Yahoo. News.is.running.a.story&nb sp;.about.those.crazy,.cash  ;.strapped,.Russians.building.a& nbsp;.space.shuttle.for.tourists ..For.under.$100,000.you&n bsp;.can.take.a.one~hour.f light.that.includes.a.mere .3.minutes.of.weightlessne ss..Apparently.the.flights .are.to.start.around.2004/ 2005..oOo.21mhz.adds.a&nbs p;.link.to.this.press.rele ase.from.Russia's.Myasishchev&nb sp;.Design.Bureau,.writing:.oOo& nbsp;.On.close.examination,.it&n bsp;.turns.out.to.be.a&nbs p;.downscaled.version.of.Buran.o Oo
Smile, don't click...
I am thinking about a possible suit against you
Russia .Unveils .Space .Shuttle .for .Tourists .Posted .by .timothy .on .Friday .March .15, .@05:24AM .from .the .goes~up~goes~down~da .dept. . .joestump98 .writes: . .oOo .Yahoo~ .News .is .running .a .story .about .those .crazy, .cash .strapped, .Russians .building .a .space .shuttle .for .tourists. .For .under .$100,000 .you .can .take .a .one~hour .flight .that .includes .a .mere .3 .minutes .of .weightlessness. .Apparently .the .flights .are .to .start .around .2004/2005. .oOo .21mhz .adds .a .link .to .this .press .release .from .Russia's .Myasishchev .Design .Bureau, .writing: .oOo .On .close .examination, .it .turns .out .to .be .a .downscaled .version .of .Buran.oOo
Smile, don't click...
..stepping in their plane if the quality of this project can be measured by means of their website: offline.
You do not exist. Go away.
We will go together to a tall building and get in the elevator to the top floor. I get off on the top and when you go down I will cut the elevator cord for you.
I am into the copy and paste.
Knowing the way some Russians do business, they will probably stop the ship once they're out there and ask for another $100,000 to get you back in one piece.
Sig (appended to the end of comments I post, 54 chars)
A jump from the Golden Gate Bridge gives you a few seconds of weightlessness for free and may be no less safe than the Russian space shuttle.
If they run their shuttle the way they run their airline then I think I'll stick to earth bound holidays...
;> but the freedom of flying yourself is definetly worth it.
Also do you really want to pay enough money to go a world cruise that actually lasts a while?
OR for the same money how far could you go in learning to fly yourself and get a plane - okay you're limited to the sky
--- Users are like bacteria -> Each one causing a thousand tiny crises until the host finally gives up and dies.
3 minutes, at nearly $600 per second. About half of that time will be spent vomiting, so now you're looking at more than $1000 per second.
Not since "Glitter" hit the theaters has so much money been made by causing people to barf.
Cheers,
Bowie J. Poag
I wonder if NASA's resistance to the idea of a space tourist has anything to do with the fact that the tourist they tried to shoot into space blew up. At least this guy is technical and paying his way.
People,
:-
e r.shtml
If you READ the article then you can see that you actually get more than just a one hour flight, from the press release
"At the peak of its parabolic trajectory, passengers will experience several minutes of weightlessness and see the Earth from space. Four days of space flight orientation including centrifuge, zero-gravity and high-altitude jet flight training, as well as safety and onboard system lessons are expected to be required."
Not so sure about the complexity of the craft with ejection of the motor at burnout and deployable aerodynamic control surfaces with a 'chute for final landing, for a contrast in design for the same problem take a look at http://www.bristolspaceplanes.com/projects/ascend
"Because we are not employing at entry level, offshoring will kill our industry stone dead."
These guys will do anything for hard western currency....now who's the "Capitalist Pig?"
I don't know whether tourists would want to pay for that, but the movie industry sure would. Those expensive special effects movies would finally get realistic weightlessness space scenes. What's a few hundred thousand dollars when you want to film the next Bond movie in orbit! :)
heh, just thought somebody should say something...
"We must be the change we wish to see in the world." -Gandhi
Hmmm. Not so much Buran (AKA Shuttleski; the two vehicles look remarkably similar), but it is the spitting image of the X-20 Dynasoar (designed and almost-built in the '60s by the USAF). Pretty Pictures Here.
There's no reason to suppose copying. Both vehicles are built for approximately the same mission, so it's more concurrent evolution.
--
I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy
Okay, it's very expensive, and most ppl will just not be interested to do this.
But there are quite a number of people that dream to go to space, but for one or another reason, could never get there. After all, not all ppl have the inclination to join the military for X year in order to get a very small chance at chance to the training...
Let's not even talk about nationalities and politics...
At least those people now have a chance at making their dream come true and it's only a feather on the Russians cap that they are the ones implementing it first.
With the US, Russia, EU, India and Japan already out there (I must be forgetting some), others are bound to join too.
This can only be a good idea to make space interesting again (and let's hope they'll stop bombing each other to hell while humanity has a new challenge).:wq
Genius doesn't work on an assembly line basis. You can't simply say, "Today I will be brilliant."
Seems that the C-21 is the Russian Entry to the X-Prize.
Also, they have built two of the M-55 carrier craft. They are a updated 'research' version of the M-17, which was the Russian version of America's U2 spy plane.
This page on HTOL TSTO (Horizontal take off & landing, two stage to orbit) has a few pictures of various launch systems. There is a nice picture of the M-17 in flight at the end of that page. (The M-55 in this picutre seems to have additional wing mounted engines.
According to the cutaway model, the cabin is relativly roomy, but there dosn't seem much room for fuel. Most of the equipment at the rear of the craft seems to be life support and other equipment, not presurised fuel tanks. Perhaps they are using solid rocket motors (aka Big Firework), but russians tend to prefer, and endeed excell, at liquid fueled rockets. Besides, this schematic seems to show a rather different type of spacecraft. (note the wings, and overall length) Therefore, I suspect that this is a plywood mockup, for the benifit of potential investors, in the tradition of most space enterprises over the past 5 years.
-- We don't understand software, and sometimes we don't understand hardware, but we can *see* the blinking lights
65 miles up?
Thats not a space flight. It's just a high altitude plane flight.
They do such flights when they shoot movies about space stuff and need zero gravity.
And you dont need specially built spaceship to have 3 minutes of zero gravity. High atitude place will go.
If that was a REAL space flight then it should have at least one time orbit around the earth and that would be much more than 3 minutes of zero gravity.
I believe he's attempting re-entry sir...
i'm sure i'd be extremely bored but i suppose it would be cool to say i had been there
Flight into Space -- $100,000
Not burning up on re-entry -- Priceless
in bottle caps, aluminum coke cans, and
bottles.
No seriously folks, this is great, The
Russian people are thinking Capitalistic !
I've worked for NASA in past and had
a hand in Space Shuttle Project. I love
NASA, but I think one little SHIT can be
baby sat for a few hours.
So am I the only one whos shocked at the fact that the Russians (the former USSR!) are going to be the first ones to approach a capitalist space program?! Come on, get your act together USA! Our entire country is based on the ideal that if you come up with something cool to do/sell you should do it and get rich, and the Russians are beating us to the punch? Please NASA, do something similar so you can fund a fucking Mars mission when the gov cuts your funding! Just think, we have the shuttles, its the only way we are going to go to mars any time soon and not have johnny taxpayer pay about a zillion dollars for it.
Hey George, wanna take a space walk ( yuk yuk yuk)
These Russians should put little red lights on the sides of thier rockets. They should paint a big sign up the side of thier rockets that say "Best Little Whorehouse in Khazikstan"
Now that precedent has been set, every whack job with $ 100,000 to blow will be lining up to take his joyride into space, and eventually it will cause an accident to happen. Then the multi-billion dollar "INTERNATIONAL" project will be space dust. Our tax dollars will go up in smoke because the Russians are whores!!!
Making a cheap-ass joke: $0
/.: -1 Karma
Posting it on
Getting it fundamentally wrong: Priceless
;-) - sorry man.
The USA will not let civilians, tourists, go up on their shuttle and Russia will.
What does this say about the USA.
I know for a fact that I could go up on the space shuttle.
What is NASA's problem?
Let's REALLY F***K the Earth up and let all the fat little millionaires go on their selfish joyrides, the Ruskies don't care about the environment. A shuttle launch produces more CFC"s than the country of Austrailia does in a year!!!!!!!!!! Make 'em wait until NASA perfects the SCRAMJET in about 10 years.
Having designed, built and flown a lot of conventional and unorthodox model aircraft (including flying wings, flying disks, canards, lifting-body craft, a flying lawnmower and a flying dog-house) in my time, I have to say that the craft looks decidedly unstable to me.
All that vertical surface at the wing-tips will produce a very significant dutch-rolling tendency.
While I'm sure that such instability could be compensated for using a fly-by-wire computer system, I can't see any aerodynamic benefit to having such a large amount of tip-fin area.
Tip-fins are usually used to reduce the size of vorticies produced when the high pressure air below the wing meets the low pressure air above it.
At high angles of attack, these vorticies create huge amounts of drag and reduce the wing's efficiency quite substantially.
You'll notice that some modern passenger jets use tip-fins as a method of reducing tip vorticies and they show quite significant improvements in fuel-efficiency as a result -- however, I believe that the 747 required extra vertical stabilizer area to compensate for the destabilizing effect of the tip-fins when they were added.
However, the fins on the Russian craft are much larger than would be necessary to obtain the required vortex-reducing effect and smack of being the work of a cartoonist rather than an aerodynamic engineer.
This mock-up looks more like just a marketing tool than a genuine attempt to produce an accurate facsimile of a workable design.
It makes sense really -- don't waste any money on design or testing until you've built a shuttle-like plywood mock-up to gauge the level of interest and maybe even collect a few booking deposits from wannabe travellers.
For those that visit Moscow, in Gorky Park, by the river is the shell of a Buran Shuttle. Entry is only a few US dollars - and it includes a rather dodgy multimedia presentation on space flight. The intersting thing for me when visiting was that, even when you get to Gorky Park, the thing isn't really advertised. I ended up taking the ferris wheel so I could look over the park layout to find this shuttle that I'd read about in my Lonely Planet guide. Russia apparently built 5 Burans, only one of which did an unmanned orbital flight. I'm not sure if the one in Gorky Park is that one. Makes you wonder where the others are and if anything will be done with them besides stripping them down and turning them into a rotting tourist attraction in Moscow.
r an2.jpg
Here is a picture I found on the web:
http://aeroweb.lucia.it/~agretch/Buran/gpk94ag_bu
It will be interesting to see where this Space Tourist venture goes. If it can pay for itself (and one would assume it could as it is hard to believe that anybody could afford to run it at a loss) it might turn out that the Russian space industry will get a good head start in the space tourism industry.
Considering how much that rich US guy paid to go up to the Space station, $100,000 is a snap!
However you may moan and groan, they probably have a reasonable market for this kind of thing. I remember my ex boss, for example, who said things like $1,000,000 for a house, cheap don't you think? When of course my house was costing me the earth (for me) at a mere $100,000....
Conversion Rate Optimisation French / English consultant
Much like with technology (computers in the mid-1980's for example), it's thought that as they sell more trips it'll become less expensive.
This page was generated by hand using sweat shop labor, thank you for Subscribing Subscriber (564781).
you better be letting me drive it.
For around 50'000 USD you can take a place in a russian school plane for russian cosmonauts.
Its used to practice weightlessness for people that should be going to space, or for scientifically experiments.
Its realy simple ide', the plane goes up as high as it can.. at the peek of it flights it slows down, and people inside the aircraft gets "thrown into the air inside th place"
This makes people inside the place "weightless" well not realy, but they are freefalling inside the plane body.. And with no wind to desturb them they think they are truly "weightless"
I think you get 15 minutes off "weighlessnes" under one ride on these planes.. (they make several climbs and decends)
As this craft lacks a vertical stabaliser I would suggest it is for yaw stablility. For a comparison take a look at http://www.astronautix.com/craft/dynasoar.htm.
The X20 Dynasoar was a very similar shape.
"Because we are not employing at entry level, offshoring will kill our industry stone dead."
Russia is proving to be quite the playground for amateur space folk. NASA loaned out the 'vomit comet' to Ron Howard's production crew for the filming of Apollo 13 - they allow college students who enroll in special classes in college to fly aboard for free... but they won't let joe-blow off the street try it out. For about $5000, Russia is more than happy to give you a tour of Star City and fly 10-15 parabolas in their version of the comet.
(The vomit comet is a plane similar to a 747 that flies at about 40k feet in slow arcs (parabolas) allowing 20-30 seconds of true weightlessness)
NASA has really kept their fists clenched about allowing civilians on their missions. I think it would be a great way to aleviate their budgetary problems and further the program. If people can afford it - let them go!!! Advance the space age!!!
It doesn't suprise me that they will be the last to put a "common" man in space... especially after the challenger fiasco. Nasa would sooner stage yet another event to fool us into thinking the enormous amount tax dollars we are spending is actually doing something. Face it, we never really landed on the moon(take a close look at the pictures) and the is no way the apollo's thin shielding could in anyway protect the astronouts in the solar flare of the apollo 9 mission.
Our space program is bogus, and commercialism is the only way to ensure honest exploration.
Nasa is shaking in thier pants and they should be.
10 years after the fall of communism, they seem to have it down.
I think this is probably the best news for manned spaceflight since the construction of ISS began. Why? Simple: It brings manned spaceflight to the market. There's a huge demand for space tourism, and that should bring down prices quickly.
The better our launch capabilities become, the sooner we will become a truely space faring civilization.
And that is something I want to see in my life time.
$100,000 for yourself
$50 for a hooker
$100,000 for her ticket
3 minute sex in space with a hooker? Priceless.
Somethings money can't buy.
God spoke to me
CAPITALISM HAS MADE A GREAT LEAP TODAY.
YOU CAN NOW BUY A TICKET INTO SPACE.
TOO BAD IT WASN'T BECAUSE OF AMERICA.
The Russians have learned more about capitalism since their latest revolution than the most
"free" country in the world (USA?).
I've read that NASA tries to avoid showing home viewers the way astronauts often have to be given wheelchairs when they disembark after spaceflight, because they cannot walk after they spend too much time in outer space.
I've read that muscular atrophy is one of the side effects of spending time in outer space and it's not always possible to get back 100% conditioning later.
They thought this happened because the astronauts were not doing enough work against gravity, so they had them exercise in space to simulate pushing against gravity.
But that didn't work. The last research that I read about suggested that the cause of muscular atrophy during spaceflight is that fundamental cellular processes go slightly wonky in a weightless environment.
The researchers have said that cell membranes for new cells are misaligned and therefore slightly leaky - they don't keep in all the stuff they are supposed to keep in and keep out all the stuff they are supposed to keep out.
But this information is not widely promoted, they kind of hide it without actually suppressing it.
There are space entrepreneurs who want us to believe that humanity has a future in outer space either as tourists or as residents.
But the last research I saw on the health dangers of being in a prolonged weightless environment suggests that we have to make the best we can of this planet Earth, because it gives us life in more ways than one.
and claim it was their idea to open space travel to average civilians. They will say the Russians had spied and stole the idea from them.
If five millionaires can fund the entire Russian space program and turn it into a going commercial concern, then more power to them. NASA has done a good job of spending billions of dollars of taxpayer's money and to what avail? Pure research is in my opinion very justifiable and definitely in the realm of government funding.
But in their zeal to "own" space - a typical beaurocratic tendency - NASA has attempted to control what really is now applied engineering; the shuttle program is now NOT research, it's the things they do with it that are. Building a Space Station is NOT research, it's the experiments that are.
Therefore, the Russians have done a marvellous job of opening the awareness of the entire world to a tectonic shift in thinking; that the flights should now be commercial.
Government can still do research aboard specially constructed craft and by contracting for fares aboard commercial ships.
It's now time to stop the whining by the people on this board who believe the crap they are being fed by NASA about "safety" and other garbage. If ageing John Glenn can fly as a publicity stunt, so can a fit engineer as a tourist who is funding a significant part of an entire country's space effort and good on him.
Safety is relative. You can white-water raft down the Colorado river and die pretty easily, there are risks in many sports. There's risk in flying spaceships too, but that will not deter someone who really wants to go. If the tourist endangers the mission, then either the mission or the ship were badly designed.
All the negative posts are clearly, in the eyes of onlookers, just sour grapes and ignorance.
And congratulations to the Russians who deserve tremendous credit for taking this bold step - just like they did as first to put up a satellite, a man in space, and a woman in space.
What do you think those huge vertical surfaces on the wing tips act as? Sorry Mr Wind Tunnel but this thing looks plenty stable.
Weren't all of the microgravity scenes for all the Apollo missions filmed aboard such an airplane? Not just Apollo 13.
While I have nothing against space tourists (they can spend their money anyway they want), Russia by this action just confirms the fact that they are a nation of prostitutes. The Russian government has put up their entire nation for sale and slapped their own deserving scientists in the face. Besides trips into space, they are also selling nuclear weapons to terrorist nations. Anything to make money to keep up the pretense that Russia is still an important nation.
altho expensive, it'll lead to better technology at cheaper prices so that 10 years later you and I can do for $5000
Am I the only person that sees a striking resemblance to this thing and John Crichton's ship on Farscape?
AMCGLTD.COM. Where cats, science fictio
I think it is extremely rude and impolite to call an entire nation "crazy", especially on the front page of one's web site. An apology from the news maker would be appropriate.
Step 1: Offer orbital flights for $100,000
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit
How can they lose?
~ now you know
Thats what I was saying, the wing tips were instead of a conventional vertical stabaliser on a plane.
"Because we are not employing at entry level, offshoring will kill our industry stone dead."
I never called you a troll. This type of design has been tried before you, but even these stabilizers are massive by comparrison to earlier designs. You have seen the X-24 haven't you?
l an esx24a.jpg
http://homepages.tesco.net/~xplanesx/xplanes/xp
On close examination, it turns out to be a downscaled version of Buran.
No it doesn't. There are plenty of good pictures of the Buran Orbiter, as well as the experimental and prototype vehicles that preceeded it, at the NPO Molniya web page.
They have a nice set of web pages there, BTW. Some are in English, but most are in Cyrillic. I particularly like the Buran/Shuttle comparison and the clicking diagram of the full Buran/Energia stack.
Growing up in the 70s, I had a poster almost exactly like this on my bedroom wall, 'cept it was of the Shuttle, but Buran.
Having travelled in the eastern block I can tell you honestly that there is a different sense of public safety there. People really don't get sued for negligence, and caveat emptor means so much more than be careful or your new jeans might rip-It means buyer beware for your life!
People drive drunk on mountain roads with their headlights off in the middle of the night.
We could never get a passenger flight off, the liability insurance would be way to huge.
We "won" the space race, the arms race and the cold war... We're the richest country in the world, and the most successful space program... Now Russia's doing commercial space tourism, and the best we can do is keep sending probes, cutting NASA's budget and reducing manned spaceflights. It's just sad...
It is not a copy of X-20. The Soviets already designed AND flew a small space plane called the BOR-4 as a test vehicle for the Buran project. It made sub-orbital flights in 1982 and 1984. It seems that the new Russian "space plane" is based on the BOR-4, or at least the experience gained in the BOR-4 project.
Photoshere
Zigbee Central: A Zigbee weblog
I want to walk on the Moon. Bring me there!
[sigh]* 2002-03-14 23:15:39 Russian tourist mini-shuttle (articles,space) (rejected)[/sigh]
...
Well, anyway. What I mentioned in my story submission, and what's most fascinating to me about this, is what it might mean for the future. This is the way the Shuttle was originally supposed to be built, remember: a fully reusable booster stage, basically a really big plane, that would carry the orbiter up ~50 miles, at which point the orbiter's engines would kick in and take it the rest of the way, with the booster flying back to Earth and loaded up for the next launch. It was classic penny-wise, pound-foolish budget cuts that saddled us with the current hybrid mess.
So this could act as proof-of-concept for such a thing -- if they can build it cheaply enough for the tourist trade, they can build a bigger, orbital model to do the sorts of things the Shuttle does now at a much lower cost. Also, a bigger version of the current sub-orbital craft, if turned out assembly-line style, might achieve the economies of scale necessary for commercial travel. London to Tokyo in a couple of hours
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
Russian computer engineers immigrated to USA by handreds of thousands, proving that they are of the best software engineers in the world. And proving that American citizenship is not compatible with math and phisics. Americans are good for business (ain't they?), but not for sciences.
Now we'll see that those migrated thousands are nothing comparing to what Russia still keeps in its brain stock. All they need is the next generation of business brains. After that - America is a dead meat. And Washington knows that. That's why Bush is looking for new World War :(
I never called you a troll.
:)
Indeed you didn't, and he never said you did. That is his signature. I suggest turning off signatures or turning on the seperator.
proton != antielectron
This is not, in fact, funny.
According to the article, the tourist-shuttle will take 3 crew (1 pilot, 2 passengers) and suspend them for 3 minutes. If you added a pair of boosters, stripped out the crew compartment and associated life-support, would it be possible to boost light cargo into orbit? I mean, hell, at $100k, even LEO would be good.
That brings up the other question, why the hell doesn't NASA fund the Buran program instead of the shuttle program? No crew compartment = more cargo capacity, less cost/turnaround time (since we don't have to certify the craft for human occupants.) Not to mention Russian scientists/technicians are cheap these days.
Astronaut wings.
The only way to get them is by going to a high enough altitude; 100 km is high enough. Incidently, it will also get the X-prize for the company if it is the first to pull this off (think of the monetary incentives for early aviation; the X-prize is the equivalent for putting regular people in space).
science is a religion
Good joke, but it was Mastercard (who sued Ralf Nader for using their ad format during the last prez election), check the attrition.org Mastercard spoof gallery for more.
Big Daddy, Johnny, Burp, Aunt Zelda, Scott, Slurp, Big Momma
You've kind of answered your own question.
The reason why the Russians are able to run rings around us is that their efforts are bweing run by private companies, while NASA is a huge stupid and typically inefficient beaurocracy.
NASA spent 2 billion dollars on their next shuttle vehicle, X33, and got nowhere. By the time the money ran out, they were basically back at square one, because their design was based on like eight different new and unproven technologies.
The Russian company is spending a total of 60 million to develop this.
It'll be beautiful if it works.
Jon Acheson
All opinions expressed herein are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled.
Buran had 1 successful flight that was unmanned. Manned flights were planned but canceled because the Soviet economy fell apart.
Those Russian engineers have a lot more experience in manned space flight than the US. They hold ALL the records for duration, ALL records related to space stations and have flown many more cosmonauts than the US has flown astronauts.
Sputnik was put up by the Soviets. Yuri Gagarin was put up by the Soviets. The first space station was launched by the Soviets. They run far more supply missions to the ISS than the Americans.
And no, I am not a Russian; I am a fifth generation American who is deeply frustrated by the US space program.
science is a religion
This basic layout has been proposed before.
The X-20 Dynasoar looked similar, as did a mini-shuttle the Europeans were developing back in the '80's.
The Farscape people were probably influenced by those designs.
Jon Acheson
All opinions expressed herein are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled.
If the "downrange" - horizontal distance travelled - is reasonable, there may be much better money-making opportunities. London (or Moscow) to New York or LA to Tokoyo express package deliveries - see The Suborbital Road to Space and this by Rick Kolker
Kolker suggests at $500 a pound, transplant organs are about the only thing with the economics, but at $50, legal documents will pay the freight.
If we assume the $100,000 a seat means a payload of 500 pounds, then they're starting around $200 a pound. But if you can rip the life support system out and have 2500 pounds payload, then we're talking high-end document delivery. And documents don't need to breathe.
Why "the crazy russians"?
I shouldn't have to tell you people...
And check out the history: US gov't made a regime of talibans. US gov't helps US corporations to sell a weapons around the world. And US gov't punishs other countries not b/c of terrorizm - b/c they have a conflict of business interests.
So, WHO ARE PROSTITUTES?
From the pics at the BBC, this is a slightly different design than Buran - note the vertical control surfaces are on the wingtips instead of a single tailfin. Interestingly, this looks a lot like some of the early Shuttle designs - the current Shuttle, which was designed to service a space station, was redesigned to replace a station, and now services a station.
I wonder if this might be used as an alternative to the Soyuz capsules the Russians currently use for unmanned resupply of the ISS - it could conceivably be flown entirely from the ground, a capability demonstrated by Buran (a capability the Shuttle doesn't have).
---------------
Vpered na Mars!
Give Russians some time. And watch what will happen in China. These two countries has much more chances to compete US than EU or Japan.
this is what it's gonna take to get the planet's space programs out of the shitter and headed towards a bright bold future as a space faring species. Defense r&d has taken it as far as it can go we need the private sector to take part if I will be able to someday enroll in star fleet academy or at least my grand kid.
Hmmm. Not so much Buran (AKA Shuttleski; the two vehicles look remarkably similar), but it is the spitting image of the X-20 Dynasoar
The X-20 is *not* a dinosaur! It can't be that old, I haven't even seen any SPECIAL OFFERS for it yet! And why would you need an X-20, when the X-10 has the all *NEW* Pan & Tilt feature? For crying out loud, didn't you see the girl in the bikini on the popunder window? If I understand correctly, she comes with it!
Remember "Bring 'em on"? *sigh
..glitter had that mariah carey lady in it, she's will fit. I came every minute.
No, it's not using vertical take off. Because the shutttle is so 'small', it is carried by a high-altitude plane.
Unlike other great nations that have to import the brain, Russians have been always great engineers. too bad that they were living in a wrong system.
I am honestly surprised to see all these vindictive, envious anti-Russian statements here. Does it matter who makes it? Does it matter that it's not American? Most of the rest of the world sort of assumed the cold war was over. That is, until the American government started "leaking" plans to target Russia et al. It really does seem as if some overpatriotic Americans get confused when not faced with a clear cut enemy and are then forced by inner anguish to make one up.
I am glad they are doing this for a multitude of reasons. Besides the role reversal that's going on.
When we had competition there was a space race. To the moon at that time. These days China is catching up with thier space program and plans for a Chinese Mars mission is not beyond their vision. The Russians are surpassing the space tourist milestone and everyone should be happy. This will open up a lot of other doors to the future.
And where have we 'evolved' our program to? Oh yeah, if your not perfect in every conceivable way or make the mistake of criticizing NASA you will never get to be a US space tourist. That is of course IF we ever take a step in that direction with our program or allow US businesses to compete for space.
Anyway... glad to see the Russians are doing this. It will make them the first commercially successful manned space program and really put our noses to the grindstone for a bit. A little humility lesson as the result of competition in an open market goes a very long way.
Prospecting Stinks. Stop Wasting Time on Cold Calling.
A russian company is already offering a few minutes of weighlessness on an aeroplane for a decent price.
Umm, I wouldn't run to far with that... these are the same "always great engineers" who designed a highly flamable nuclear reactor. (and built a lot of them) Graphite is a great heat conductor and ok neutron barrier, however, it also burns really well. (Carbon arc lamps were used in movie projectors and light houses.)
(Ok, so we weren't thinking to far ahead either -- See also: Apollo 11)