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Mike Melvill Chosen To Fly SpaceShipOne
ansimon writes "Mike Melvill is chosen to fly SpaceShipOne to the outer limits of this rock that we call earth. Mike will be the first to earn his astronaut wings with a privately-developed aeroplane/rocket. A new era of space exploration is about to begin! Godspeed and come back safe, so the rest of us can go too..."
Share value of Mike's life insurance company plummeted.
I am actually very nervous and excited about this flight, I hope there is a video of this historic flight, does anyone actually plan on being there?
For The Best Jazz/Hip-hop fusion > COlD DUCK
. . . even if something does go wrong, there wouldn't be any better way to go out, especially with a flight history such as his.
On the other hand, not much left to top this if it does go flawlessly.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
For one who's done a lot of reading of both science fiction as well as cosmology, the stars seem so far out of reach for my short lifetime.
Getting into space isn't exactly reaching the stars, but it's the first step on the journey. I hope the mission goes smoothly and its success is a sign of things to come.
... or the first person to get a privately funded cremation in outer space... you know, whatever floats his boat.
What would happen if each team competing for the X-Prize consecutively launched to their deaths one after the other?
Is there aloud to be any government intervention after the first few disasters, barring the others from taking flight?
I toyed with the idea of driving down there late last week. I'd get fired for missing work, but it'd be the chance to see something amazing. As it turns out I'm reading slashdot, not that there's anything wrong with that, instead of sleeping in the back of a truck out in the desert.
does he run Linux?
This is really cool.
I have to admit I'd rather be Captain of a
large ship rather than pilot of a small
tin can though...
Saving up for my first starship, which I suppose
will be available in the next 40 years or so,
around the time I'll be having my first mid-life
crisis (or for me, mid-life crisis'es...)
We need to start NOW if we want to have 40 million
people on the moon by 2371...
MALCOLM SCOTT CARPENTER
...Mike Melvill
ALAN SHEPARD
JOHN GLENN
BUZZ ALDRIN
NEIL ARMSTRONG
SpaceShipOne will not only be making history because they will be breaking the tradition that only governments have the ability to get into space. They will also be breaking the tradition that only people with dramatic-sounding names get to perform important space-exploration milestones.
Fly, SpaceShipOne, fly! Fly for the drably-named of the world! For all the "I'm sorry, what's your name again"s of the world! For everyone named "Morton"! You represent all of us.
Here is a mirror. Wishing Michael a safe flight!
If I am not mistaken this will be the first vehicle launched in the USA since the Columbia accident. That alone is something to celebrate. The USA is back in busness. :p
So far, I have seen some people posting stuff related to Melville dying. This is poor taste.
I honestly hope that Melville completes this first trip unharmed. Not only for his sake, but for our sake. If he dies, the government will more than likely shut the whole private space exploration business down and set humanity back by an untold amount of years.
Why would anyone wish harm upon someone trying to pave the waqy for the rest of us?
I must have just missed the longer straw, Mike _always_ gets to test things before me
aw, shucks
Error 407 - No creative sig found
I didn't know India had a space program...
If I point out that you are incorrect, making me a foe does not make you any more correct.
I think that says it all...
It's "no one," not "noone." Who the hell is noone anyway?
pepperoni and sausage
/obvious?
"So this is what it feels like
I'm thrilled at the strides private space exploration is making. I think it's appropriate that private companies should invest their profits into an endevour that will both profit them and humanity; leaving the government (funds, red tape) free to focus on its' proper obligations to its' citizenry.
I wonder if he's got the weight allowance to bring a towel, just in case...
---
Play Six Pack Man. I
That is just plain wrong. Funny, yes, but wrong.
Being a die-hard conservative, I for one welcome our new corporate astronauts and look forward to it creating some new ideas at NASA as well. Obviously, this depends on your link still being funny tomorrow at lunch, rather than prophetic.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
Um, from wikipedia:o f_China
China has 1.3 billion people(and is the 4th largest in terms of land mass) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Republic_
India, (which does have a space program btw, they just haven't had any manned missions yet) India has about 1.05 billion...
Scaled Composites seems to have done their homework. The craft has a double presure hull, is relatively small, and uses a propellant that is arguably more stable than what we burn in our cars. Any failure is more likely to result in an abort than in a catastrophe. SpaceShipOne has been tested extensively, and the design, although radical, is comparitively simple when viewed alongside early government funded sub-orbital flight.
Good luck and Godspeed to the SpaceShipOne team.
That reminds me... Pizza Hut was getting ready to fund a proton space rocket, though I think the deal went sour.
Calling atheism and agnosticism a religion is like calling bald a hair color.
Godspeed to Melvill, and God bless whoever finally gave the Scaled Composites website a makeover in the last couple of days so that it no longer looks like something a high school class came up with. OK, engineering is a bit more of a priority than slick web presentations, but the prior version was just painful to deal with.
But guys, the title of Melvill's bio page says "SpaceShipOne pilot bio: Brian Binnie". Last minute substitution, perhaps?
If this guys name will really be that memory inducing? I mean, sure, he's the first commercial astrona....pilot to touch the edge of space, okay... I mean, don't get me wrong, it's a GREAT achievement, but does the mass of sheeple around the globe think the same?
Excuse me, I don't mean to impose, but I am the ocean
Whether "the USA" is the government, or all of us
Could someone get him some of those Delta Pilot Wings, and give them to him? :-p
that Cats doesn't decide to show up...
to be seen by the Vulcans in our solar system. This will usher in a new era of interstellar space travel. It will also give us new plotlines for Star Trek: Enterprise.
There ain't no prize for almost achieving.
That would be a hell of a lot more likely if he were going up in the shuttle. I'd take my luck going into space (though this is just a suborbital flight) with a ship designed by Burt Rutan and his team at Scaled Composites over something built by NASA whose design decisions have more to do with red tape and beaurocracy than technical merit.
> I for one welcome our new.....
AHA!, thought you could sneak that one by did you?
Advanced users are users too!
Is that really fair to say? Sure, NASA has had its share of red-tape screwups, and some tragic erros, but don't overlook what they *have* done.
To Mike and the rest of the SpaceShipOne crew, best of luck tomorrow.
Bod,
p.s.
I think I will reread the "Man Who Sold the Moon" by Robert A. Heinlein" tonight.
"I say we take off, nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
I loved looking at the couple of pictures on their site showing the ground crew preparing the vehicle for its next flight. Jeans in tennis shoes vs. NASA's pictures of everyone in clean-room get-up.
Smooth flight guys. As someone said earlier, don't forget your towel!
Jim Harry
That is NOT funny. Not at all.
From the various articles about the x-prize and spaceshipone one could be forgiven for wondering whether these guys are really going into 'space', because relative to NASA's exploits they aren't exactly going that high. However, pictures like this and this from earlier test flights give a practical idea of just how high they are going to get... awesome! I wish there was some sort of webcast... anyone know of anything live?
Read Pynchon.
just imagine a beowulf cluster of him...
Does anybody know what kind of flight it is? Is it orbital or just ballistic (like first manned USA flight)?
I've heard terms like this and calling him the pilot, but AFAIK he's not actually doing anything to control the flight and is just a payload... with the emphasis on "paying loads of $$$".
Engineering is the art of compromise.
wow, that is pretty amazing, i didn't realize test pilots even lived that long.
The "Insert Quote Here" line is almost as predictable as inserting an actual quote.
Going through the pictures, this one (http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/photos/ima ges/video/14p_1b.jpg) taken at 200k ft is breath taking, however lossy in quality. I couldn't imagine what 328k ft would look like.
It's a great day for libertarian values for the private sector to budge into what was only the government's territory.
-I am an elective eunuch.
Man, that's nasty. Funny as hell, so the moderation is fine, but nasty. I hope your wrong tomorrow :)
That is NOT funny. Not at all.
I am the person who posted the original comment, and in fact, thinking it over, to a certain extent I rather agree with you. It is quite true that there is a very real, tangible risk to this flight, which surely negates the humor of such a comment to some extent. If the risk were imaginary, or exaggerated, that wouldn't be the case.
Consider: If this were a similar story about, say, a child undergoing a risky experimental transplant operation, then, indeed--there would be no humor in such a comment whatsoever.
I realize that perhaps this is no different. This Mike Melvill, although I do not know him personally, looks like a friendly, happy human being. He quite likely has a family; if not, certainly friends. If something really were to go wrong, we're talking about real, living, breathing human being who will no longer be with us, and who will be deeply missed by those who loved him, and those whom he loved.
I think the way to see humor in a remark like that which I made is to take it as Pharmboy explained in his earlier post--if this link is funny tomorrow at lunch, rather than prophetic, then there was indeed humor value in it. So, in a way, with my post I suppose was betting on the odds here, and hoping that Mike comes through for us. Otherwise, you are quite right, it really won't be funny. Not at all.
Fair to the brilliant engineers and scientists that work at NASA? No. Fair to the organization? Yes. If things like this flight and the X-Prize can jump start affordable commercial space flight, then just imagine what some of those folks at NASA could do working elsewhere, where their ideas and innovation wouldn't be stiffled by the lack of budget and inefficient use of the budget they do have. "Too many chefs", as they say...
I know /. is US centric and all that stuff... but, as things are going on right now:
...or they will move to another country.
"If he dies, the US government will more than likely shut the whole US private space exploration business down and set the US humanity back by an untold amount of years."
Flame bait? Nah. Ifr you look at China's Space program, you'll see the above poster is correct.
Largest means the largest, not the most populous. What he's saying is that private American citizens have matched the achievements of the Russian space program in the 50s. Russia is the largest country on earth. And I didn't have to check Wikipedia to find that out. Arse.
Anyone knows if there will be any webcasts? Or if ABC, CNN or anyone else is going to have live feeds?
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
Being dead serious for a minute, if this guy fails--ie dies--it could very well mark the end of a very short lived experiment in private space exploration. Not because the American spirit will be dampened by it--on the contrary, I can see the Yanks trying harder than ever to make it work. On the other hand, I can already see the handwringers on CNN asking "Why isn't there a law?"
Support the First Amendment. Read at -1
For those of us who don't have access to CNN but have a decent enough internet connection, MSNBC is planning on providing live streaming video. You can find the link in most of their recent articles about it, including this one: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5236958/
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Spike Spiegel...
Best damned space cowboy the universe has ever known!
After reading down this far I've already forgotten his name
- Density
Umm....maybe you should...oh I dunno....READ THE FUCKING POST!
"I didn't know India had a space program"
Seems to me...maybe this is just me talking, that India and Russi are 2 different countries! (And I didn't even have to check Wikipedia to see that you are a dumbass!)
Plus, whenever people say "The largest country" it usually means the most populous, I know that Russia is larger geographically.
Oh, please. Get over yourself. Half of the reason it was only 20 million was because they didn't have to pioneer the system that had nailed down nearly 50 years of successful spaceflight. Ok, so it's civilan flight. Whoopdeeshit. As great as it is, these people are standing on the shoulders of giants to even get close to where they are today. No freakin chance this would be $20M if they had to R&D and fabricate a space program from the ground up.
And yes, the USA is back and buisness and it is a reason to celebrate. Beyond the petty fact that there is a distinct lack of foreign competition in this sector, the event is a milestone in civilian rocketry worldwide. Whose market was this entire effort born from again...? Yeah, it sounds pigheaded as hell, but then so does dismissing this entire project as nothing more than a invidiual/corporate victory when it's a victory for the entire country whose very way of life made such impossible dreams a possible and whose economic environment could support such flights of fancy, something for which the entire world will look upon and follow.
Damn right it's a reason to celebrate.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
*Completely* off-topic, mod as such... :-)
But there is a disk image of the old "Oregon Trail" game for Apple II floating around the net, that has saved on it, a "tombstone" from a player who died surprisingly early in the game. The headstone reads:
peperony and cheese
I grin everytime I play Oregon Trail. I love it when the barely literate attempt humor. What do you want on your Tombstone, indeed.
Blogging Weight Loss, Distance Education, and more at verlin.com
So if the first guy doesn't make it back the rest of us can give up, eh? Oh yeah? National Geographic reports that:
Seastead this.
composites melt and burn.
How doth the hero strong and brave,
A celestial path in the heavens pave!
<silence...>
Uh, go, Mike Melvill, go.
anyone know of anything live?
I was going to post a link to the radio webcast of the event, but I'd rather be able to listen to it myself! If all of you start listening too, none of us will get a good feed.
If you can find it (not hard), you're in luck.
all this stuff about being innovative and this being privately funded...blah.
the craft itself looks like a ripoff of the bell x-1, 1950's technology.
note that i said "bell". not nasa. pls. remember that the apollo series, shuttles, etc might have been funded by nasa, the government, taxes, etc. but were all designed and built by private industry.
okay, scaled composites is cool and all, but they could not have done this on their own.
it took a billionaire, one who made his money by a stroke of luck, one who made billions off selling the government and many busineses and people crappy software, using illegal business practices--people who wouldn't be billionaires if the USA wasn't so inept at enforcing their own laws.
so in effect, this was paid for by the microsoft tax. it might not have gone through the government first, but the money certainly flew out of the people's wallets in much the same fashion.
finally, in closing, yay. i agree that there is no way the government could have done this for $20 million. there is just too much overhead in everything the government does.
it's not unusual to see one overhead person (manager, supervisor, secretary, etc) for every engineer/technician/"worker" that the government funds. sickening.
so overall this is a good thing.
Land mass, tard.
I've got to agree with the parent about the danger of the shuttles, not because of the beaurocracy at NASA, but because of the age of the craft. A normal plane goes through enough stress every time it leaves the ground an comes back. Something like those shuttles don't have what it takes to consistently withstand re-entry combined with human error on the ground. This is one case where I see newer as better, even if it is almost unproven.
My only question is if he's going to be playing "Magic Carpet Ride" on his way into space. :)
cheese logs keep my wang warm at night.
the X-15 has done all of this and more in the '60s.
this guy is just another john glenn, along for the ride.
Hopefully spaceflight/lunar colonization will occur before we all die : D
I wonder whether he answered yes or no.
Liberals call everyone Nazis yet they are the closest thing to it.
So "space" is defined as what? The point where the sky disappears?
Take off every 'SpaceShipOne'!
You know what you doing.
Move 'SpaceShipOne'!
For great history!
Or, derived from Wikipedia's freeform translation:
We have no time to lose. It's up to him.
All our hope for the future is in his hands.
Godspeed, SpaceShipOne pilot!
composites melt and burn.
the X-15 has already done this and way more in the '60s.
this guy is just another john glenn space monkey, along for the ride.
Or maybe "Spirit in the Sky".
When I was a little kid, I wanted to be Chuck Yeager. Now I'm sitting at home reading Slashdot. Sigh.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
RIP Mike.
Meh.
Maybe biotech companies would be interested in investing in building their own orbital lab? Or maybe I've just had a bit too much coffee...
If these folks built this thing for peanuts (compared to NASA budgets), NASA will seem ridiculously ineffective. Like a giant corporation where no one gives a crap about what they're doing and comes to work every day not to do something to change the world, but to collect the paycheck every two weeks.
It's not like they deserve this kind of treatment, but the question will be raised for sure.
They will not win the X-Prize tommorow and they most likely will not win it in the nearest future.
The X-Prize is for 2 manned launches with the equivalent of 3 persons mass within 2 weeks.
Tommorow's flight is 1 person and less ballast mass and AFAIK, scaled has no plans to launch again in the following 2 weeks.
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
Considering spacship one is designed to take 3 people to 100km altitude. This flight with only the pilot onboard are they going to just launch to 100 km or are they going to let it rip at full power and just see how high this thing can really go
There doesn't appear to be much eye-sight wise through the small portals of space-ship one anyways. I find it interesting none-the-less.
You mean the way the've thrown every obsticle in the way of civillian spaceflight? The way the've frozen their operation on the obsolete shuttle in order to keep the 25,000 people it takes to launch one employed? Oh, you mean what NASA did over thirty years ago back when they actually were active in pioneering spaceflight instead of sitting on their laurels.
Good, inexpensive web hosting
I've never been all that excited about the space program; I missed those years by a decade. I worked for a PhD that was part of the Apollo program; he left NASA when he realized that he would never get to fly in space. He was right, so long as it was being run by governments - only the elite of the elite would ever have that honour, and even then, only while there was political interest.
Looking at pictures taken from the edge of space make my spine tingle - especially when they're taken by what amounts to a shoestring budget done by private enterprise. Pictures are one thing; tomorrow if all goes to plan, private enterprise will have put a man up there at the edge of space. Maybe not in orbit; I'm sure that will come in time.
I can't imagine what it must feel like to look up and see black, then look down and see the glowing blue curvature of the earth.
If you're reading this Mike, and everyone at Scaled Composites, you did a damn good job and we'll be waiting for your safe landing!
..don't panic
Or maybe you missed my obvious Star Trek reference
cheese logs keep my wang warm at night.
Bring an inanimate carbon rod. You never know when you could use one.
When does the US gov cough up $100 billion for the M-prize for the first commercial trip to Mars? Assuming they meet the requirements later in the year of course.
who needs to go back to the 6th grade and learn the fucking difference between your and you're.
Yeah, I caught it. Mine was "Apollo 13".
Then how about JUGDERDEMIDIYN GURRAGCHA, who is not only first Mongolian cosmonaut, but is also named way beyond 'dramatically'.
In fact, here is a complete list of all 436 cosmo-/astronauts. Choose your favourite
3.243F6A8885A308D313
It's appropriate to view this attempt win the X Prize with a full perspective of who Scaled Composites are, and where they came from.
Burt Rutan has been thinking outside the box, from the halcyon days of the Vari-Eze & Long-Eze to the innovative Ares and the 'appear-to-thumb-your-nose-at-physics' Boomerang.
His company; Scaled Composites, have not only survived the drastic slump of the light aircraft market in the 80's and 90' but made innovation their tradition - no small feat.
IMHO, they deserve to succeed with this attempt of Spaceship One.
... and TOM PARIS.
The first person to submit a page that matches that search will be in the #1 slot.
Godspeed, Mr. Melvill. I'll have my boss yelling at me while I try to catch bits of the flight on TV at work :) Best of luck, this is the most exciting thing (for me, at least) to happen in the field of space travel in my short 18 years here on earth.
I got a +5, Troll
No they won't for any number of reasons:
1) There is only 1 person on board and no mentioned of carrying balast equal to the weight of 2 other humans.
2) They have not file for, nor received, clearance for another flight within 2 weeks.
3) Scaled Composites has said outright that tomorrow is not the first of a two X-Prize run launch set.
You mean catastrophic loss of 40% of their shuttle fleet?
Not to mention, as another respondent pointed out, their complete animus to any kind of competition. I can't believe how badly they derided Denis Tito being the first space tourist. Anybody with a brain at NASA would have jumped on the idea and started a whole new revenue stream.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
You want to read where NASA is going, probably alread is, read They Shall Have Stars by James Blish ( a Star Trek author), part of the fantastic Cities in Flight series. Incidentally, Blish was also one of the people who wrote the books based on the Star Trek TV series.
Call me old fashioned, but I like a dump to be as memorable as it is devastating - Bender
From the Launch Event FAQ:
Q: Can we fly a commercial flight to Mojave?
A: No, Mojave has no commercial airline service.
Doh.
"Never put off for tomorrow what can be avoided altogether"
...the first thing I thought of when I read "Melvill" was, help Mel launch all the rockets, et cetera. I'm sorry.
... I keep remembering (well, almost, I was only about 2 years old at the time) John Glenn being wished Godspeed (specifically on his first specaflight). And how does Godspeed compare to lightspeed?
Tag lost or not installed.
Mike will be the first to earn his astronaut wings with a privately-developed aeroplane/rocket.
unless he dies. *rimshot*
get so like over it already. you are so like so pedantic
i am heading over to mojave... anybody have any ideas about a large sign using the letters CNN in an acronym. perhaps something with a message like "compete with this, NASA"
Hey, they may have fucked up human spaceflight for the last 20 years or so, but give them credit for Spitzer, Hubble, Chandra, Spirit and Opportunity, Cassini, and all the other wonderful science they've done that I can't remember right now.
---
Mod me down, you fucking twits. Go ahead. I dare you.
(I read with sigs off.)
2. Take-off.
3. ???
4. Profit!!!
In soviet russia, spaceship flies mike.
I'd like to see a beo...
I wish you all the best...
Yeah, but that would imply that, you know, his ship is going to actually be useful, or at least an accomplishment, like that warp drive thing, as opposed to some hunk of plastic that tumbles uncontrollably for several seconds just barely above the arbitrary altitude at which NASA decided that space begins.
Call me back when you build something to get me to the ISS, or the moon, maybe, or at least offers me something I can't already get at Six Flags for $20.
He should play some contempo jazz or big band. Seeing that plane fly gives me weird Cowboy Bebop vibes.
In order to fly a plane (at least anything bigger than an ultralight), you need to get a pilot's license. I'm curious to know if they are going to have another certification to tack on to that license for space travel, or if they will have a separate license altogether. If this flight is successful, and it becomes economical to fly into space, I'd imagine that some sort of verification of ability will be necessary.
Godspeed.
Paul Allen: OK, the spaceship is ready, wanna try it?
Burt Rutan (Very nervous as he looks at the spaceship): I'm not gonna try it, you try it first.
Paul: Oh, come on. Just try it.
Burt: No way, You try it.
Paul: Hey, let's get Mikey - he'll try anything.
Burt: Hey Mikey! (Whispers in Mike Melville's ear)
(Mike gets into SpaceShipOne and flies into space)
Paul and Burt: He likes it!
-hadohk
Joining the sixty mile-high club?
I bet you could find a dozen people within 5 minutes who would sign up for the next one. Humanity has always been a bunch of crazy bastards.
Hollow words will burn and hollow men will burn.
Most importantly the largest nation on earth pioneered the principles that Space Ship One will rely on. If you think this project even compares to the achievements of the Russian space program you are either very ignorent or very stupid.
I am not Russian or anything but I am sick of morons that can't tell the difference between launching a Cosmonaut for two round trips of the planet 43 years ago with the aid of possibly a single computer (not on board), primitive materials and theoretical equasions and flying a plane at a sub-orbital altitude with the aid of 40 years of space research to build from. Oh, and also the morons that can't tell the difference between putting people on the moon and "winning".
I of cause wish the Space Ship One Team luck, but they can never achieve such a victory for the human race as Gargarin did that day when he left the planet for the first time ever.
When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
May you be guided and kept safe on your travels. You take the dreams of mankind and the hope of science with you. Good luck.
Considering that some huge percentage of new drugs, treatments, and surgeries are developed in the US, it's a good thing someone is still going the private enterprise route. Otherwise everyone, including the rest of the world that relies on US medical research, would be fucked, in a manner of speaking.
When was the last time someone outside the US isolated a new antibiotic, for example?
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
While they are huge and a lot of money is no doubt wasted internally, they're doing "one of a kind" and "state of the art" stuff, and this is always expensive.
It's not exactly easy to quantify their impact on our daily lives, but if you watch TV, use cell phone and/or pager, or GPS you see your tax dollars at work pretty much. None of these things would be easy or even possible without NASA.
Saying that NASA is too expensive is like saying that Wright brothers had wasted too much money on their first crappy airplane. Sure they did, but it was the FIRST working airplane. These days any fool can build a working airplane out of readily available parts. Back then it was state of the art.
It sure did cost billions to send rovers to Mars, too. And it's not something anyone else will be able to achieve within the next decade.
This costs a lot. Can NASA be improved? No doubt. Is the cost justified even given the current inefficiencies? It sure as heck is.
Of course, without all of NASA's developments and the tons of spent by the government in the past, would this private venture even be possible?
Of course, but everything space-related and government-funded that was really needed for this flight was learned over 40 years ago.
Stop worrying about the risks of nuclear power and start worrying about the risks of not using nuclear power.
Don't get me wrong - Rutan's done a wonderful thing but....to reach orbit you have to hit about 18,000 mph (even a true suborbital flight needs about 10,000 mph or so depending on the distance you want to go) ....so if we ballpark Mach 1 at 600 just for a rough estimate's sake then you need to go about Mach 25 or so to really reach orbit.
:(
The MAX speed of Spaceship one is Mach 3 so this design has NO potential (as I see it) to EVER make anything near a true suborbital flight of any real distance let alone achieve orbit.
It's a wonderful SYMBOLIC effort and I applaud it but lest anyone feel that trips around the Earth are just around the corner now.... well.....
Sorry to burst anyone's bubble
----- In Your Cubicle No One Can Hear You Scream...
The Orion drive is our only hope.
Two Northwest Airlines Airbus pilots might be the next runners-up for tourist flights into outer upper/space/out-of-airspace...
= 51 4&e=13&u=/ap/20040620/ap_on_re_us/wrong_airpor t_1
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid
An inquiring mind (mine) wants to know a few things.
After a Northwest Airlines Airbus passenger plane landed at Ellsworth Air Force Base, the passengers were detained for some 3 hours, interrogated, after being ordered to shut their window covers.
So, does anyone know what is so special about Ellsworth that the windows were ordered shut? This does not seem to be the case (ordering shuttered windows) at Portland and some other bases sharing a border with commercial airports.
Could the crew and or passengers have been interrogated as to whether they shot footage or filmed any of the base during descent? Did the military confiscate their cameras, or merely look at each frame and scan every laptop for pictures of the base (or look for quickly-hidden compact flash or other media disks), or did the military fly out with them on the short hop over the hill, ensuring that NO-ONE shot any pix or opened their window covers?
Even more importantly, how can the pilot and first officer of a plane with probably more computing power than a space shuttle land 5 miles off course and onto a MILITARY base, unless they turned off the electronics or doubted the electronics, and landed by VFR, or Visual Flight Rules. And, even MORE telling, does this say the the FAA and the flight controllers were asleep at the controls?
Can such a thing happen again? Will this prompt the military to "paint" commercial aircraft to sternly warn them to get back on course? Why did not the military simultaneously call the plane AND the air traffic control tower and vector the commercial plane away? Doesn't this say that even after 9/11, the military and commercial air traffic control systems, after billions of dollars in equipment and upgrades, STILL/one again let down the public?
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
and comparitively speaking a troll.
Seriously. This topic has been debated so much that I swear that this is some astro turfing by Boeing.
People are clamoring to get into space, and has been pointed out in many areas, even with this limited capability it still even has value for some research programs. This is a bridge builder, not a dead-end technology.
As has been pointed out many times, the flight distance of the original flight of the Wright Flyer was less than the wingspan of a 747. Does that mean it was a dead-end technology? In some ways yes. The flying system of a Wright flyer relied upon wing warping that has not been revisited until very recently, and that only in experimental aircraft. The body shifting a skilled pilot with that aircraft had to do is now really only used with hang-gliders, and even then it is much more refined. Even the later version of the aircraft were really only able to travel about 100 miles, and only under conditions we would call today VFR.
I do believe this is much more than symbolism. This is building infrastructure and bringing back the days of barnstorming, where pilots from WWI wanted to earn a few extra bucks, so they took an airplane (sometimes military surplus as well) and flew it around for "air shows" (usually just a simple demonstration... not the current rather extravagant versions we have now), and occasionally taking on a few passengers. With Spaceship One, this era of flight can be reborn, and it was during that critical era that aircraft technologies matured enough that passenger air service finally occured, ultimately leading to the DC-3 (a fun aircraft that I've actually flown in as a passenger on a regular commercial flight).
Right now, there isn't really anything between the Space Shuttle and the ship currently being built by the "Rocket Guy" Brian Walker And even Mr. Walker, while it may eventually work, still isn't even done.
Finally there is a system in place that can and will approve commercial space flight (as proved by Scaled Composites... they have the permit in hand). Technologies can and will be upgraded, and as just about every participant in the X-prize competition has been proving, you can get to space on less than the most exotic rockets and materials. Let's see where spaceflight can happen when you don't have contractors saying "it doesn't matter what the cost of building it is. Just get it up there." That leads to Shuttle launches that cost 1/2 Billion dollars each. This next flight of the shuttle will cost way over $1 Billion. I know that private companies could do that for considerably cheaper. Indeed, $1 Billion could cover the entire R&D budget, including FAA certification trials, of a whole launch system capable of putting seven astronauts at the ISS with extra cargo room for some expendable supplies. Why wouldn't NASA go that route instead? Just make an x-prize equivalent for the same money, and it will be going well before the shuttle is ready and flight-recertified itself. (Well... maybe, but then you might as well junk the entire shuttle program if an alternative program is close to launching).
If you don't think a $1 billion carrot for orbital characteristics would work, you really havn't been paying attention to the X-prize, have you? And that is money that will more than likely be spend in the the next two years anyway, why not put it to more valuable use?
This kind of "flight of fancy" would give a whole new meaning to "ST (space travel): Deep Space 9"
.wav file, in binary, too, which gestures,
LOL
How many flights to send up 50 RealDolls or a fab facility?
If they want to avoid pregnancy in upper space, they better send up some male, female, and transgender RealDolls. They can withstand up to 200 or more degrees, but I guess now, someone can toss a few of these expensive (about $5gs each) out the airlock. To blow these plastiques off the pad and into orbit, the $5G cost will feel like 50,000 Gs to a budget manager. I wonder what a floating RealDoll would look like tumbling through the modules of the space station. Could one of these descend unaided, and survive if provided a good angle of insertion into the atmosphere... Let's see: The angle of the dangle...
Maybe NASA will send up some 8-track, Soft Cell vinyls, a turntable, and have the crew and pax struttin' to "Sex Dwarf, isn't it nice, luring Disco Dollies to a life of vice? SEX DWARF! Isn't it NICE, lurid disco DOLLIES in a life of ICE?" (simulate the sound of the RealDoll fanny being slapped. Sorry, Marc (Almond). Then, back down on Terra Firma, another Soft Cell song comes to mind: "I wanted to tell her, but I stuck to my lies." Oh, wait, that was "Ministry".
Now, NASA won't need anymore bronze or golden plaques affixed to space craft such as Pioneer and Voyager. Just have the ion drive craft trail a few of these as "humor cards", to lighten the desire of any intellengince to visit us with ill intentions. They can add a
"Say 'hello' to 'Dolly' and to 'Jo'".
In space, no one will here these dolls scream...when the aliens perform "Deconstruction by JoJo" on these dolls.
David Syes
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Sometimes, I see something so mind-bogglingly stupid posted here that I have to wonder if it's a joke.
/. when Rutan or Carmack actually collects the prize.
Only so I can say "You prize thieves!" or something similar!
If I were present, and you did so, I'd slap you silly for showing such disrepect to the people who had cracked the government space flight monopoly.
I'm going to proceed on the assumption that you meant what you wrote above.
First, the purpose of offering the prize is to get people to spend money on winning the prize. Paul Allen has spent a great deal of money to win that prize, and the result of the money that he's spent is that a viable private spacecraft now exists.
Likewise, John Carmack has also spent a lot of money in this endeavor, and so now we have *two* ground-breaking spacecraft designs coming together.
Now, let's suppose that the prize were limited to just those people you find acceptably impoverished. Would Carmack or Rutan's spacecraft exist? If not, what benefit would the world gain from that lack of invention?
If you think that StarChaser has such a clever design that they *deserve* (whatever that means) to win, then put your money where your mouth is, and fork over some cash. It might be a little more helpful to them than some silly little socialistic git snivelling on their behalf on
Here's something else for you to chew on: EVERY prize is bought. It's bought with hard work, thoughtful planning, and in some cases, with a great deal of funding.
There is a long and proud history of prizes in the Aerospace industry, from the prize that Louis Bleriot won for flying across the English channel, to the Schneider trophy, the Collier trophy, and now, the X-prize. The effect of each prize has been to cause a great deal of attention and investment in the field to occur, and we *all* benefit from the developments of people who were trying to "buy the prize".
If you don't like it, TFB. Your approval is neither sought nor required.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Seriously, the US taxpayers already paid for this once.
Why wasn't all the data from the NASA research made public so that any organization or individual with enough money could simply buy land, build a launch site, build a ship and launch their own reproduction of the NASA original designs?
The actual building of hardware was outsourced to the lowest bidder anyway, so the designs can't be that hard to reproduce. Hell, I'm sure the people who built the first ones would be glad to make another for the right price.
I'd love to hear a good answer.
If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. - James Madison
The largest nation has done nothing of the sort, unless it's been in secret.
This is, of course, the funniest post on slashdot, EVER. Why, oh why, do AC's never get modded up? Some of them are damn insightful, damn funny, and damn interesting.
Alas, we are not but techno-elites.
Just wanted to add that we have chat on the irc.freenode.net servers. The room is appropriately named #SpaceShipOne and is now open to the public without password needed.
Since there is apearently no real-time coverage online (unless NASATV desides to cover it), this may be the next closest thing. Share your voice, express your opinion, and just hang out and listen to others.
See you there...
-Pandelirium - registered.freenode.net
Moderator - #SpaceShipOne #maestro #cassini #Pandelirium MaximumPC
http://www.pandelirium.net
Mike Melville is the ONLY member of the team who doesn't have to prepare two speeches....
Define Irony: all Slashdotters cheering for a company taht was (almost) fully funded by blood money of Evil Empire of Micro$oft.
P.S. best of luck and successful flight to Mike and SS1 people.
-DVK
"The right to figure things out for yourself is the only true freedom everyone shares. Go use it"-R.A.Heinlein
People die all the time and the life insurance pays. They just have to charge more on average than what they pay out. Your joke would make sense with some more expensive items than humans.
"Father, Thank you, especially for letting me fly this flight. Thank you for the priviledge of being able to be in this position; to be up in the wonderous place, seeing all these many startling wonderful things that you have created. Help guide and direct all of us that we may shape our lives to be much better Christians, trying to help one another, and to work with one another rather then fighting and bickering. Help us to complete this mission successfully. Help us in our future space endouvors that we may show the world that democracy really can compete, and still able to fo things in a big way, and are able to do ersearch, developement, and can conduct many scientific and very technical programs. We with our families. Give them guidence and encouragement, and let them know that everything wil be OK. We ask in Thy name. Amen"
Prayer of Astronaut Gordon Cooper, pilot of the Mercury-Atlas 9 mission, during 17th orbit of the Earth in the "Faith 7".
While looking for a prayer for astronauts that I swore existed I found this. While I am not of any religion I hope that the mission will be on your minds, as private companies going to space will help speed up the exploration of space. The last thing we need is a setback on the first try. I posted this as it is a great look back to 1962 and how the US felt in contrast to today. While some things stayed the same...
---In a time of Chimpanzees I was a Monkey.
Escape velocity is the initial vertical speed needed to escape the earths gravity well with no further trust. If you catapulted someone upwards, or shot them out of a cannon or something, they would need to start out at that speed to reach orbit.
However, it should be blatantly obvious to anyone that as long as your upwards speed is positive, you are still climbing and will eventually get into orbit... Spaceship One will not exceed a speed of Mach 3, but as long as ANY of that speed is vertical climb it will keep on going upwards by definition.
I don't think everyone should be too hasty to knock NASA I'll grant you they're no where near as efficient as they should be. However ask yourself how they got that way, if the government came along and started messing up scaled composites plans saying "Hmm needs to be bigger I want to put a spy satellite in space". And put in their own managers to 'oversee' the project and added committee meetings etc. etc. how long do you think it would take them? And how much do you think it would cost? Its actually amazing NASA ever did anything.
That's why we should never be discouraged from attempting something like this. A Government has its strengths such as
Can open up political doors
Revise laws (to allow spaceports etc.)
Afford large R&D projects
However a small commercial venture has different advantages
Not hamstrung by red tape and management
Much quicker development cycle
More efficient with funds (sometimes less money is a blessing makes you think up innovative cheaper solutions).
Less hampered by safety restrictions
Not having to cater to external parties.
I think Scaled is a brilliant example of what can be achieved by a wealthy benefactor with vision and a very talented engineering team. Long may it continue
Does anyone know the URIs of any live news video streams that will be covering the launch? The BBC only seem to do a looped 15 minute clip of the current news.
http://blog.nexusuk.org
Dont forget to add a subtext of
"at 100x cost of anything the private sector could manage [tm]"
Sometimes if a space launch requires 30,000 people to be hired, they dont care because its A) tax money, and b) bob squarepants senator gets is votes.
Sacking 26,000 people is probably not on their list of "reducing costs", even if a $6m super computer and wifi pdas could reduce paper work by 100x fold.
Having said that, yes its good what they've achieved period ignoring the cost.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
...after finding out his uniform has a red shirt.
--
What would Bill Clinton do?
OK, its only a short flight, so it doesnt give us all much time to get changed into them.
If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done?
You're just jealous :P You wish you were a lucky billionaire playing with a rocket toy to have sex in space, admit it.
Maybe we deserve this world ?
Space flight has always been an argument against the free market:
a)'duh, who is going to pay millions of dollars just to visit space'
b)'yeah, but it will get cheaper with time, as companys put huge investments into it to archieve the profits that can be realized when spaceflight has truly become a consumer good'
a)'hahahahaha, look at how much NASA has to spend, going to space will always be expensive and dangerous, even the government hasn't managed it yet'
b)'no, its expensive and dangerous *because* the government is doing it not despite.'
a)'yeah right, thats what you always say, I'll believe that when I see it'
___
No power in the 'verse can stop me
The only reason I can think of why they fucked manned space flight was during the cold war. They developed primitive rocketing techs and they never really investigated any other way of space travel.
Let's not forget the biggest thing NASA did for us, and that was making it all believable. We all grew up watching the cardboard spaceships blast off into a black and white universe, but NASA brought us the proof. It showed every nerd-to-be that there was infact something out there, and we could go if we wanted it bad enough.
I'm guessing sex in low g might not be all it's cracked up to be. Imagine spinning around and around and around, not exactly the best time to be getting motion sickness eh? ::)
I dunno, the very first time I got laid, I got sick and threw up from the excitement immediately afterwards. Then we laughed our heads off, it was pretty funny.
" doubt the government will allow any private companies to build a rocket as large as the Saturn V"
Just try to get some of the large Model Rocket engines and you don't know how true that is.
After all, the terrorist could use Estes rockets to, I don't know... bring down the empire state building or sears tower or the pentagon or something.
Nope. You may achieve a height that would be useful for an orbit, but to be "in orbit" you have to achieve a speed tangential to the earth's radius (i.e. at right angles to your ascent) such that the centripetal acceleration of your vehicle is equal and opposite to that of the earth's gravity. You can work it out quite simply from Newton's famous equation F=GMm/r^2 and F=-mv^2/r
Stick Men
Ok, largest can mean any of three things, and all three have or have had space programs.
land mass=Russia
Populus=China
GDP=United States of America.
Food not Bombs is a nice platitude but it breaks down when you notice that the Bombees are usually well fed
1: Sling man into space
2: Sling 3 men into space
3: Win X-Prize
4: ??
5: Profit!!
http://www.baen.com/green_hills_of_earth.htm Today will be a true milestone of space flight, as big as Neil Armstrong. Once we start going there just because we can, everything changes. Once people start making money off of it, the scale changes. That's when things get interesting. --- The Green Hills of Earth Let the sweet fresh breezes heal me As they rove around the girth Of our lovely mother planet Of the cool, green hills of Earth. We've tried each spinning space mote And reckoned its true worth: Take us back again to the homes of men On the cool, green hills of Earth. The arching sky is calling Spacemen back to their trade. ALL HANDS! STAND BY! FREE FALLING! And the lights below us fade. Out ride the sons of Terra, Far drives the thundering jet, Up leaps a race of Earthmen, Out, far, and onward yet --- We pray for one last landing On the globe that gave us birth; Let us rest our eyes on the fleecy skies And the cool, green hills of Earth. Robert A. Heinlein
My Photography - http://ian-x.com
The Deathlings (comic) - http://thedeathlings.com
We're pushing the bounds of the possible! Daring the unknown! Challeng- uh, no... wait... it's not 1963 and we've kind of been over this before.
Wake me up when they get into orbit, k?
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Um... he's flying a ship to the ground? That's, um, ambitious...
I've found that my posts don't format quite right w/o a sig.
holy fucking headache trying to find a fucking webcast of this, i thought scaled composite's website was going to offer a webcast, but can't find it now, as well as finding the exact time the real action starts.
settling for an msnbc video webcast, have to upgrade to WMP9 (fuck.), typical bullshit.
Anyone have information as to where one could view this historic event at work via pc, no hassle?
STFU
What kind of moron would think that's funny? I enjoy almost every form of humor, including some dark and disrespectful humor, but I can't believe anyone would be so inhuman as to post a message like this, nor can I believe someone would moderate it as "Funny".
I ardently support the right to free speech, but callous, stupid comments like yours make me wonder if everyone deserves the right. Maybe we should reserve free speech for humans, or people with a greater than room temperature IQ. You might not even make the cut if we measured in Centigrade.
I wish it were possible for you and your descendants to be barred from the benefits that humanity will gain from Mike Melvill's bravery, which you ridicule with your infantile comment.
Go write a virus or something, you moronic asocial dweeb.
>> My ultraviolent Linux switch video.
Food not Bombs is a nice platitude but it breaks down when you notice that the Bombees are usually well fed
Just because someone says something extremely crude doesn't mean they don't have the right to say it. "Free speech" includes unpopular speech, too.
So you are saying when Orville & Wilbur Wright crashed, they too were screw ups for the 100% loss of their "fleet"?
Tricky Dick did pretty well with the topic.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
White Knight is in the air.... Less than 1 hour to go to 50,000 ft. drop time, afterwards the 80 sec. blast into space...
Go Baby Go!
Godspeed Mike Melville!
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Ummmm...you missed the point. What Rutan has built is a vehicle that goes really high for a few minutes BUT isn't ANYWHERE close to achieving an orbital (or even suborbital) capacity.
Once again:To do that you need a HORIZONTAL speed in the range of 10K-15K mph for a subprbital flight and about 18K mph to achieve orbit. The MAX speed of SS1 is a little over 1K MPH.
This is why there's no heat shielding on SS1 and why it can be made of composites. Any composite craft (using current trch) would MELT entering atmosphere at anything NEAR orbital speed.
RUTAN made a great SYMBOLIC effort but there is ZERO chance that his design can achieve orbit. He's built a vehicle that touches space for a few minutes and COMES BACK DOWN. There's simply not much you can do scientific or tourist wise with such a flight path.
Bottom Line: Fun Ride. Not Very Useful. (in my opinion of course)
----- In Your Cubicle No One Can Hear You Scream...
What's the current altitude? Any ETA to the rocket ignition? I'm at work with the only tv down the hall, on a broadcast network that's not covering very well.
Evil is the money of root.
photo of launch from foxnews
What speed is that?
I don't know, 45.
Go slow you mean?
No, I mean fucking fast! Godspeed!
<motorcycle noise> <whoosh> Was that God!?
Look, I think you are missing the point.
This is a private MANNED flight.
So what if the boosters are made by private aerospace firms? All they are launching are toys. Toys that can take zero gravity, zero kelvin, and zero pressure. The big deal about this is about MANNING a capsule into space without a goverment doing anything but giving permits like a building inspector.
You are talking about subcontractors. Look, I understand what you are saying, but to be truthful, your +4 insightful makes no sense here.
MANNED SPACEFLIGHT. MANNED. Non-governmental pilots in space. Big deal. Real big deal considering all the cash that has washed up for NASA.
When the real space station is ready. The one with the Holiday inn.
Oh man, this is just NEAT. I'm getting the bbc real feed on dialup and it's working pretty good.
man, way back when, I was the designated radio listener for space launches at my junior high. Would go out to the playground to listen to the space launches, then run in every 15 minutes and get on the PA system to give a "live" update. had to go outside to get the transistor radio to pick up any good stations, and I was one of the few people who even HAD a "transistor" as we used to call them. And now PRIVATE SPACE FLIGHT!
manomanomanoman
Any of you geezers remember how everything used to just stop and people would stay glued to their tvs or radios when we had ANY manned launch, and the coverage was full time start to finish? Way different now, I just ran my over the air tv dial-NADA- what a shame. Oh well, that's what the net is for, you can get what you want!
too FREEKING cool!
Until the Chinese offer something that is unique other than their nationality, they are off the list.
Your nationality has never been a concern.
This is science people. If you think that you get to make the list because of your hometown, then you have all missed completely the biggest point of expanding knowledge. Knowledge is not racist and knows no nationality.
Yuri Gagarin at the top of the list because he was first, not because of his nationality.
That is like saying that a high scoring home run hitter that didn't crack the top ten should make the cut because he was on a specific team. It's favoritism. Science and the facts don't show favoritism.
Stop grandstanding for the Chinese until they do something new that no one else has done yet.
open4free ©
No kidding....this flight is just a little higher than his last flight, so is another day at the office for him....
You're messin' with my Zen Thing, man.....
The pilot's resume-
Flight Experience:
First flight of the Model 72 GRIZZLY prototype, a short take-off and landing bush plane.
First flight of the Model 77 SOLITAIRE prototype, a self-launching single place sailplane.
First flight of the Model 81 CATBIRD prototype, a high performance 5 place general aviation aircraft.
First flight of the Model 120 PREDATOR prototype, a high performance crop duster.
First flight of the Model 144 prototype, ultimately flown as a UAV.
First in flight firing of the GAU-12/U25mm cannon in the Model 151 ARES jet fighter.
First flight of the Model 202 BOOMERANG, Burt's unconventional high performance twin.
First flight of the Model 226 RAPTOR, later flown as an RPV.
First flight of the Model 281 PROTEUS, a high altitude research twin engine jet.
First flight of the Model 316 SPACESHIPONE
Participated in the flight testing of the following:
Beech Starship prototype (NGBA)
Fairchild's Next Generation Trainer for the US Air Force (NGT)
ARES, a single engine, ground support jet fighter.
Pond Racer, a twin engine racing plane, designed to break the unlimited piston powered world speed record.
He is the only person to have flown in the Voyager Aircraft besides Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager.
Total flight time: 6950 hours in 127 fixed wing and 11 helicopters
Was awarded the Ivan C. Kincheloe trophy in 1999 for his work on developmental high altitude flight testing of the model 281 Proteus
Member of the Experimental Aircraft Association
Personally built and flight tested:
Model 27 Variviggen
Model 61 Long-EZ
Flew his Long-EZ around the world in 1997.
Still, with all that, I would still have an urge to say this when he gets in the craft...
"Son, if you screw this one up I swear the only thing you'll be flying is a plane load of rubber dog sh*t out of Hong Kong!"
First creative, seriously funny joke I've seen around /. in a long time.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
Yes, but he didn't go very far and he CAME BACK. That was dumb.
I'd have kept going, gone exploring the universe, that kind of stuff. And THEN come back.
>>I of cause wish the Space Ship One Team luck, but they can never achieve such a victory for the human race as Gargarin did that day when he left the planet for the first time ever.>>
CBC reporting flight reached 100km successfully!
Full Story
Updates
10:51 a.m. ET: SpaceShipOne has been dropped from its mothership, the White Knight. Pilot Mike Melvill fired the rockets and SpaceShipOne is now rocketing toward space. Goal: 62 miles (100 kilometers) up, where Melvill will earn his astronaut wings. Under the rising Sun the rocket firing was visible to the thousands of shouting, whooping enthralled spectators.
10:40 a.m. ET: The White Knight Mothership is at 32,000 feet. In about 10 minutes it will be in position to drop SpaceShipOne. "Hopes are running high," said Jeff Greason of XCOR Aerospace. "Were' looking forward to this great event."
10:28 a.m. ET: A white contrail is now visible as the White Knight climbs into the final leg of its ascent into high altitude, before releasing SpaceShipOne. The scene is playing out straight overhead for spectators at the Mojave Airport. An interesting aside: Expecting many records to be broken today, an official with the Guinness Book of World Records flew in from England and is at the Mojave Airport.
10:11 a.m. ET: The White Knight with SpaceShipOne attached is circling the airport, gaining altitude and getting smaller and smaller to viewers on the ground. A chase plan is close to it, also circling. They glisten in the bright morning sun, heightening their visibility to spectators.
CNN is reporting on the safe return on SpaceShipOne here.
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
to dick, mel, steve, the rest of their team, the ansari X prize consortium, and the admins at bbc who mashed the turbo button on their video servers.
WAY TO GO GUYS! Serious congrats!
And you lucky slashdotters who got to see it live, make with the observations soonest!
The speed it can handle up through the athmosphere says NOTHING about whether the design can achieve orbit, or is suitable for achieving orbit, or is able to avoid burning up in the atmosphere.
More importantly: The speed it climbs at says NOTHING about whether or not it would be able to handle higher speeds if they were willing and ready to take the risk and use the extra fuel once they're up there.
Essentually you keep harping on things that have no relevance in determining the capability of the vehicle or the applicability of their technology to development of orbital capabilities.
--More importantly: The speed it climbs at says
--NOTHING about whether or not it would be able to
-- handle higher speeds if they were willing and
-- ready to take the risk and use the extra fuel
-- once they're up there.
Sorry but that's Star Trek science. You can't just carry "more fuel". More fuel is more weight...which means more fuel...which means more weight...which puts a limit on what speed the craft can actually EVER achieve and I suspect that it's current design has it running at it's max theoretical speed.
Also the craft is built out of composit materials...which will melt into a nice blob at speeds not much more then he's flown already.
You can't just "go real high" and then "go faster" - YOU NEED FUEL AND REACTION MASS FOR ALL THOSE THINGS and then you need MORE FUEL to slow back down again....or a REALLY good heat shield.
It's little wonder to me that a generation who grew up on "Bermen and Braga" science on TV doesn't understand the difference between what Rutan has done and what's REALLY NEEDED to actualy build a REAL sub-orbital (let alone orbital) craft. Hell one poster commented here how even the NEWSCASTERS didn't get what's going on.
----- In Your Cubicle No One Can Hear You Scream...
Er... no. Manned is way overpriced, but space science is so ridiculously underfunded that they do work on budgets cut to the bone. Odds are low that private industry self-funding those projects would have had them come in any cheaper at all, much less significantly cheaper.
As to launches; most all of those things I mentioned were launched on private industry's launchers, not NASA. Oversight on Atlas and Delta launches is a lot less than oversight on Shuttle.
Basically, you're talking out of your ass. Again, manned is more expensive than it needs to be, unmanned isn't (barring some hypothetical large advance in launch tech which does not at this time exist).
---
Mod me down, you fucking twits. Go ahead. I dare you.
(I read with sigs off.)
Agreed. This flight is being seriously over-hyped. It's just a rocket-powered plane and the same type of flight was made forty years ago by the USAF. Experts (including the X-prize teams themselves) agree that reaching orbit is VASTLY more difficult. The plane in question here is a miniscule thing with an oversized engine -- it's like the aerospace equivalent of drag racing.
No, because I would never compare a homebrew effort with one so massively funded and staffed as NASA, simple as that.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
As far as the creation of the Outer Space Treaty, the United Nations didn't claim anything. A bunch of nations, including the United States and the USSR who were the only space powers at the time, negotiated the Outer Space Treaty, which they then signed up to. For the United States to approve any treaty, it needed to be signed by the President and ratified in the US Senate, which it was, unanimously.
Now, there's a case to be made that it's time for a serious look at amending or replacing the Outer Space Treaty in such a way as to encourage the private exploration of space. Far be it that the UN is somehow preventing the US from doing this, there are two ways the US could change the rules if it wanted to, and I quote:
Seeing that the US government has neither proposed amendments to the treaty, or considered withdrawing, the only organization to blame for the US government's continuing to abide by the terms of the Outer Space Treaty is the US government.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
Well then, how do you explain the little red squigglies on their MONODS write-up? If that doesn't spell "p-o-w-e-r-p-o-i-n-t" I don't know what does! ;-)
--- root@127.0.0.1
Do ships/craft require to fly as a nation and subject to nations laws while in space as sea travel(if I'm not mistaken) What happens is a child is born in space on an object constructed in space? If objects are constructed in space do they automatically become attached to the nations citizen that constructs them? What about space debris? Would that mean that they would be aliens!!!!!! ok anyway its still national just not national orginizations. Is there such thing as private individuals? So there is currently a 50 year lag or something like that on government funded technologies? Will this gap close? So what does this mean? if you have enough resources you too can live your dream of going to space. (I'll stop there as it would lead to comments of use of resources etc.. etc..) In some way I geuss everything is research of course priorities are self created or something like that..
Vidarh,
Turgid is right in his reply to you.
| You can reach orbit at 1 mph if you want to.
Let's imagine that a levitating guru moves upwards at 1 mph for about 200 mi, putting him in (according to you) low earth orbit.
Two questions may be helpful: 1) what happens if the guru loses concentration and ceases to levitate?
Answer 1: he falls down to the ground. Oh, maybe that wasn't orbit after all.
2) What are the satellites near the guru doing?
Answer 2: They're doing about 8 km/s past him, falling down just as fast, but also moving along the Earth's curvature, so they never get closer to it. Now THAT is orbit.
eastpole
Save yourself while you can! This is only a wende.
Until then, was the joke funny AND not funny?
philcrissman.com.
It just really torques me off when someone risks their life in a noble adventure when most of us plod about consuming air every day, and someone else makes a sick joke about them getting killed for their trouble. If it weren't for guys like Burt Rutan and Mike Melvill, humans would still be sitting in dark caves banging rocks together.
But, yeah, I agree that free speech must include the right to say the dumbest and most offensive things, or it doesn't mean anything.
>> My ultraviolent Linux switch video.