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A Grand Day Out For British Rocketman

Posted by timothy on from the low-grav-high-tea dept.

Instine writes "Salford University, in the UK, is showing an article suggesting that Britain's biggest ever rocket has been unveiled, by an academic planning a space tourism offering by 2013. 'Nova 2 qualifies as the biggest rocket ever created and flown from the UK mainland,' says Steve Bennett, Head of Salford's Space Technology Laboratory The current offering is said to amount to 20 minutes 'flight' and 3-4 mins floating. I'm not sure how much, but I'd pay for that."

13 of 122 comments (clear)

  1. Well.. by Peter_The_Linux_Nerd · · Score: 5, Funny

    It might the biggest but it's not the best, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwIhEDq6tdY

    1. Re:Well.. by RocketGeek · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Not the same guys at all. In fact I was fortunate enough to help out on the launch of the Top Gear Reliant Robin, and the people behind the Robin are in a different league. They are really clued up and know what they are doing when it comes to launching stunt rockets. Ironically, they were building the Top Gear Reliant Robin Shuttle no more than a couple of miles from Bennett, and he had no idea :-)

  2. Re:Biggest ever? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    I suspect that the average tourist is fatter than the average astronaut

  3. Superhuman children? by MjDelves · · Score: 5, Funny
    From the article: "Steve Bennett who heads up the University's Space Technology Laboratory, will be presenting his 58ft Nova 2 rocket at the University and will discuss how his company, Starchaser Industries plans to launch it in September 2009 with the help of school pupils from across the UK. "

    .

    How many kids does it take to reach escape velocity??

    1. Re:Superhuman children? by residieu · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Depends on how hard you throw them out the back of the rocket.

    2. Re:Superhuman children? by greenguy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      All this science, I don't understand.

      --
      What if I do the same thing, and I do get different results?
    3. Re:Superhuman children? by CmdrGravy · · Score: 5, Funny

      You lived in Mosside and you actually went to school ! You must have taken some beatings for that.

  4. Obligatory Nick Park Comment by stokessd · · Score: 5, Funny

    The FUSE Grommet, you forgot to light the fuse!!!

  5. Eccentrics? by 19061969 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Quoth TFA: "Steve Bennett who heads up the University's Space Technology Laboratory, will be presenting his 58ft Nova 2 rocket at the University and will discuss how his company, Starchaser Industries plans to launch it in September 2009 with the help of school pupils from across the UK."

    There is something so British about that statement. I almost expected the guy to say, "well, I knocked it up in my garden shed at weekends with a friend of mine who is a keen amateur astronomer. We thought of getting some of the local schoolchildren to help out which would be good for their Scout's badges."

    I miss the old country sometimes even if we are often portrayed as a nation of lovable middle-class eccentrics.

    --
    bang goes my karma... again...
    1. Re:Eccentrics? by stokessd · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I miss the old country sometimes even if we are often portrayed as a nation of lovable middle-class eccentrics.

      Yet another reason the wife and I would love to move there... It's hard being a middle-class eccentric in a walmart culture.

      Sheldon

  6. Biggest British Launch by Kingston · · Score: 4, Informative
    If anyone was wondering about the rather tortured use of words:

    Nova 2 qualifies as the biggest rocket ever created and flown from the UK mainland

    It's because Britain used to have a rocket program in the 50s and 60s. All the launches of the large rockets were done from Woomera in the Australian outback. The biggest of these was Blue Streak developed as an ICBM. There are some pictures here

  7. We are shamefully lagging by damburger · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As nice as this is to see, it is shocking how far behind we are. I'm at Leicester University, and the pinnacle of British commercial rocket techology (A Skylark, a small payload sounding rocket) sits in the middle of our foyer. Meanwhile, the French with a similar sized population and a similar sized economy (and coming from a similar state of total-fucked-upness after the war) have a commercially successful 20t launcher flying regularly.

    Tory fanboys perpetually bleat that what Thatcher did to our heavy industry was a necessary evil - but it wasn't necessary for the frogs and they were in as bad a state as we were in the 1970s. We voluntarily gave up our capacity to engage in any project on a larger scale than a new shopping mall.

    --
    If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
  8. Re:Umm...what's the point..... by Jellybob · · Score: 4, Funny

    You could use British Rail, but it'll cost you as much to get to Manchester as it does to get you into space.