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Space Elevator Gets FAA Clearance

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the hot-off-the-high-wire dept.

lonesome phreak writes "Techzonez has a short piece about the recent FAA waiver received by the LiftPort Group allowing them to conduct preliminary tests or their high altitude robotic lifters. The lifters are early prototypes of the technology that the company is developing for use in its commercial space elevator to ferry cargo back and forth into space."

5 of 546 comments (clear)

  1. Thoughts on Space Elevators by treebeard77 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Thoughts on Space Elevators by Blaise Gassend has a lot of good info & links on space elevators

  2. Not the first test of the technology, actually by GroeFaZ · · Score: 5, Informative

    FTA:

    marking the first-ever test of this technology in the development of the space elevator concept.

    It may be the first test of the technology that actually requires a federal permit because of the altitude, but here are pictures and a video of an earlier test in November 2004.

    --
    The grass is always greener on the other side of the light cone.
  3. About linking to sources... by irrision · · Score: 5, Informative

    Does anyone else think that perhaps this article should be linked to the actual source instead of a link to a link that links to another site with a quote from the original source and no link to it? I mean at what point does this become a rumor when it's so far from the original source? Oh here's the link to the companies website: http://www.liftport.com/ And here's one to their staff blog which is much more interesting reading then this quote: http://www.liftport.com/progress/wp/ And heres a link to their september newsletter posted on their forums that talks about the FAA approval among other things: http://www.liftport.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25 3

  4. Re:Why bother with the FAA? by qbwiz · · Score: 5, Informative

    For example, according to Chapter 14 of Federal Regulations Part 47, all trustees of a plane registered in the US must be legal residents or citizens. Since this flight is rather unconventional, something like plane (or balloon + long tether) registration would be required. This isn't just a pilot's license.
    Considering that corporations can't become legal residents (AFAIK, IANAL), whatever country they're incorporated in is where they register their planes. This, of course, assumes a certain universality of laws, but I'm sure the FAA and most other countries have laws in place to ensure that unregistered people don't go flying planes around, even in the middle of the ocean.

    --
    Ewige Blumenkraft.
  5. Space Elevator : 2010 by Xanlexian · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.elevator2010.org/site/ Has TONS of information on this. It is a contest site that has been mentioned here before a few times (I'm too lazy to look up previous articles). All of the materials are currently available to construct one. The movie on the site explains a space elevator in simple terms. I recommend watching it.

    --
    "Congratulations, Boots. Your robot has become self-aware. You're a daddy now." -- Dr. Rho Bowman