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SpaceShipTwo Goes Supersonic Over the Mojave In 2nd Test Flight
NASA wasn't the only organization with a successful launch this week; Virgin Galactic might not have any firm plans for a launch to the moon, but this week successfully tested SpaceShip Two for the second time, hopefully bringing the era of (more) affordable space tourism even closer. "The test began when the company’s WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft took off with SpaceShipTwo at about 8 a.m. local time from the Mojave Air and Space Port. From there, the mated aircraft ascended to 46,000 feet, whereupon SpaceShipTwo was released from the carrier aircraft and ignited the rocket motor for a 20-second burn to an altitude of 69,000 feet. SpaceShipTwo achieved its maximum speed of Mach 1.43 during this portion of the mission, then returned to Mojave at 9:25 a.m. local time. Upon landing, the test pilots at the controls of SpaceShipTwo, Mark Stucky and Clint Nichols, both pilots for Scaled Composites, reported a flawless flight."
The L.A. Times' story on the launch has some great video footage, too.
The L.A. Times' story on the launch has some great video footage, too.
Yeah, it's a good thing we have to visit the L.A. Times site to see what is basically nothing more than an embedded video from YouTube.
Veni, Vidi, Velcro!
Why is Slashdot so late in reporting this? This happened days ago and has been reported widely across all media outlets. The NEW in "NEWs for nerds" implies "fresh" whereas this story is now stale.
I guess this is "Olds for Nerds. Stuff that mattered."
Brought to you by Frobozz Magic Penguin Fodder.
It is actually not that long that man bulieved that the Earth was flat and you would just drop if you sail too far off the coast
Well, OK, if you consider 2500 years "not that long". The diameter of the Earth was measured, to a precision of around 10%, by a chap named Eratosthenes circa 500 BC.
Of course, if you went to high school in, say, Texas, you might believe that Columbus had something to do with it.