On Wed, 02 Jun 2004 19:37:34 -0500, Herb Schaltegger wrote:

In article ,
"Christopher M. Jones" wrote:

Herb Schaltegger wrote:
Actually, no. They have to do it with triple the payload: three people,
not just one pilot. And they have to do it again within two weeks, not
a month or two (or three) between each flight.

Nope. They only have to demonstrate the payload and
volume, they need only one person to actually make the
flights. They can do a "how many people can fit in
the phonebooth" ground test and carry sand bags to 100 km.

An excellent example of form-over-substance in the mission requirements
if I've ever heard one. That gets a definite "Harrrrrrumph!" from me.
Has Scaled been ballasting their test flights so far? I haven't seen
anything too technical in their press releases.

You're being too harsh. Why should we risk three people on an experimental
vehicle when we can risk one and the ballast equivalent of the other two?
Sounds prudent to me and not just a matter of "form-over-substance".


Karl Hallowell