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SpaceShipOne Flight Completed Successfully
knothead99 writes "CNN is reporting the successful liftoff of SpaceShipOne from a runway in the Mojave desert. Around 10:30 EDT the craft will reach an altitude of 50,000 feet and they'll separate from White Knight and ignite the rocket for space entry. More information can also be found at the Mojave Airport website" Update: 06/21 15:36 GMT by S : An MSNBC story confirms that SpaceShipOne 'glided safely back to Earth, landing back at the Mojave Airport' around 8.15AM PST.
If we can send a man into space, why can't we send KERRY??? I don't see any need to bring him back, either.
Er, a parsec is a measure of distance, not speed.
Self awareness - try it!
Why do others who post the story like this get marked "Redundant", yet this gets modded as informative?
You mods are fucked.
dumb ass it doesnt use a booster (excuse the flame) unless you conceder the plane with several people in it one and then i hope to god they are recoverd and dont slam into the ground
CNN reported it. Maybe it happened, and maybe it didn't. But you'll still be a cocksucker.
The launch of SpaceShipOne was a grave breach of the letter and spirit of international law.
The United States has previously taken steps to unilaterally exploit outer space, never once asking permission from the people of the world. Would this permission have been given? That is very unlikely: The resources wasted on these publicity stunts could support thousands and thousands of third world families at the subsistence level for many years. That would be a valid and ethical use of the world's resources. Shooting white men into space for laughs is neither ethical nor valid.
Now a private corporation has joined in, also without seeking permission from the human race, also for the sole benefit of a tiny and overprivileged minority.
If and when the UN General Assembly deems the exploration of space to be necessary, the GA may choose to allocate funds to study the feasibility of the undertaking, but that is at their sole discretion. It is to be expected that they will, quite appropriately, continue to address their attention to genuine, urgent problems here on Earth. The harmful effects of technology on society and the environment are numerous and difficult to predict, and the benefits are almost invariably minimal or nonexistent. When technology is in private hands, what little benefit there is accrues only to the owners; why should the people of Earth permit such greed, when they gain nothing from it? No new technology can rightly be permitted to exist until the effects have been fully studied by accredited international bodies. Space travel is certainly such a technology.
In the meantime, the United States has once again demonstrated its criminal contempt for all sane and decent standards of human behavior. It's been a bad couple of weeks: First the regrettable "friendly fire" incident involving the BBC personnel in Riyadh; then, on Saturday, one of the most celebrated human rights activists in the Arabian peninsula, Abdul Aziz al-Muqrin, was murdered along with three aides by Saudi security. Now this disaster.
All we can do is keep our hopes up and continue to work for justice.
-Let me just give my background for disclosure -
.
...Mr. "rocket scientist"
-I'm a rocket scientist.
-However, if you provide a continual thrust that
- everywhere is greater than the local
-acceleration due to Earth's gravity, you will never fall back down. You could achieve this at a
-constant velocity of 1m/s if you liked, by
-suitable modification of the thrust.
Since you confuse the issue of ACCELLERATION and VELOCITY you most certainly ARE NOT a rocket scientist
Your "argument" discounts the very basic elements of weight vs.specific impulse. And in order to "never fall back down" you MUST eventually achieve a speed of ~25Kmph or you most certainly WILL fall back down. I know you don;t understand any of this but it's true none the less.
Sorry kid...better luck next time
----- In Your Cubicle No One Can Hear You Scream...
Not as bad as TechnoTwat up there, but at least you had some BALLS (a pre-requisite to understand science and technology) to reply...
I guess technokitty is changing her tampon while worrying about what color nail polish to use to type her next 'thing for truth' post...
I'm on tenterhooks.
Or we could live like kings and kill them all, then more for us. Especially because we spent 60% of the earths natural resources this year, which means there isn't enough for next year....
Its people like you who forget we are animals. It is our job to be the alpha male. Evolution has stalled on humans because we constanly uplift the weak. This will cause our downfall, we need to reverse this trend.
Or not...I dont really want to die, and I wouldnt make a good alpha male...
dumb.
Sorry, but full reaction motor power to and from orbit is a terrible way to do it. Winged flight from (and preferably to) orbit is the smart way. The X-33 was going to do the same thing. It's far more efficient.
Carmack's design requires the rocket carry enough fuel to lift itself all the way up and also lower itself slowly to the ground. This is far more fuel than a multi-stage rocket like NASA uses. SC's design uses far less fuel, because it uses the value of the wings to recovery itself.
As to your complaining about the X-Prize, the rules are the rules. The X-Prize was designed to be a first step. If the X-Prize folks wanted to require an orbitable vehicle, they would have put it in the rules. Who selected you as the reinterpreter of the rules?