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Commercial Suborbital Balloon Flight Facility Takes Shape
coondoggie writes "The Near Space Corporation this week said it would begin developing a $6.9 million phase of what it says is the first commercial high altitude balloon flight facility in the country. Commercial balloon flights to near space will be launched – though the company didn't say when — from the new facility in Tillamook, Oregon, including several of those reserved through the NASA's Flight Opportunities Program."
Call me when you've got orbitial balloon flights.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
If I only had a friggin' nickel for every twit with a Powerpoint presentation saying that they were "going to begin development" of some cool, radical technology. I now interpret this phrase as meaning someone is contemplating getting off the couch to make a Powerpoint of what they are thinking of doing.
Build the damned thing and fly it, or stop wasting my time with your empty words.
Balloon flights have been suborbital since the Montgolfier brothers first launched in 1783. The only orbital "balloons" I'm aware of are Bigelow's Genesis modules. Commercial ballooning goes back to the late 1700s as well.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Yes, Tillamook OR as in Tillamook Cheddar.
Why here? They do have a lot of cheese, a lot of cows... and therefore a lot of methane. And the whole NW corner of OR has a lot of liberals and a lot of microbrew... which renders into even more gas.
Is there some connection?
I can see the fnords!
Cool- so they have balloons that can lift subs into orbit now? That's awesome.
'99 Suborbital Balloons'
Silence is a state of mime.
Near Tillamook is the Tillamook Air Museum, which is housed in a World War II blimp hangar. I wonder if the new facility is close by. The hangar might have been a useful facility but is (obviously) presently in use. Also the choice of Tillamook is interesting, with the previous construction of the blimp hangar. I wonder if the meteorological conditions in the area are good for lighter-than-air craft.
It's easier to be a result of the past, but more fun to be a cause of the future! http://www.spacefinancegroup.com/
Remember that it's a finite resource.
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why not
1. sew your own baloon
2. build a hydrogen generator/solar collector
3. fill baloon
4. put extra weight and people in.
5. fly!
Don't tell me cause hydrogen is dangerous. gasoline is too.
No balloon has gotten higher than 53km. That's just half way there.
I must admit to a bit of envy. The group I work with (JP Aerospace) has to travel about 250 miles from our workshop to launch balloons (from Sacramento, CA to Black Rock Desert in Nevada). This place can launch them from the same spot where they make them. And there's almost $7 million for some shiny new buildings. I bet the chairs will be nice.
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Near Space Corporation? That's a terrible name for a company. Though it may be apt for what they do and their honesty is commendable but it also gives away what they cannot do - "Oh we actually wanna be Space Corporation but we have neither the money/technology nor balls to do it, so we're just gonna be content with Near Earth Corporation"
It was basically a mylar balloon that was launched by rocket and inflated after it reached orbit. A passive communications satellite; they bounced signals off of it.
Are you living in the 80's or what. I don't bother getting off the couch to make a power-point ... I don't bother getting out BED for that.
Must come down, as the saying goes. So just what happens to a "several thousand kilogram" payload when the balloon envelope bursts (and it will). Even descending at 3 m/s under a parachute, it's going cause a lot of damage to anything it lands on (tree, house, car, you).