Spaceship One lands

In article ,
says...
On Mon, 21 Jun 2004 11:16:42 -0400, Rick DeNatale
wrote:

I'm probably not going to be the first to post this, but SS1 just landed
after successfully reaching 62 miles altitude!

Little though I want to contradict you, when last I checked the story
the altitude still wasn't confirmed. That was fairly late today.

According to www.spaceflightnow.com, it was 100.1241 km. 124 meters
to spare!

Cool, isn't it?

Way cool.

Diane

In article ,
says...

Did anyone catch exactly what Burt Rutan said about the re-entry mode
being historical. He made a point about it being safer. Of course, it
wouldn't work to dissipate the kinetic energy for an orbital re-entry,
would it?

See http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ss1/040620preview.html for a
description. It sounds like the wing flexes so that the spacecraft
is aerodynamically stable in a position that minimizes heating.

Whether it's safer or not remains to proven. A flexing wing
has its own failure modes.

Don't know about orbital re-entry kinetic energy, let alone
re-entry from interplanetary flight.

Diane

"Alan Erskine" wrote in message
...
This is going to be a very long 168 hour fortnight, not just for the
people
at Scaled, but for thousands of people around the world.

168 hours is pretty short for a fortnight, but otherwise I agree

"Alan Erskine" wrote in message
...

Could the buckling have been the source of the bangs?

Be funny if it was a birdstrike.

"Diane Wilson" wrote in message
news:MPG.1b416c06d25015289896ee@news-server...
Don't know about orbital re-entry kinetic energy, let alone
re-entry from interplanetary flight.

No-one is suggesting that this particular spacecraft will ever be orbited,
let alone sent to Mars. People do build prototypes and test articles, you
know.

On Tue, 22 Jun 2004 11:52:04 +0800, "Neil Gerace"
wrote:

"Diane Wilson" wrote in message
news:MPG.1b416c06d25015289896ee@news-server...
Don't know about orbital re-entry kinetic energy, let alone
re-entry from interplanetary flight.

No-one is suggesting that this particular spacecraft will ever be orbited,
let alone sent to Mars. People do build prototypes and test articles, you
know.

....And, let us not forget, "two" usually follows "one".

OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

On Tue, 22 Jun 2004 11:49:12 +0800, "Neil Gerace"
wrote:

"Alan Erskine" wrote in message
...

Could the buckling have been the source of the bangs?

Be funny if it was a birdstrike.

....Or space junk.

OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

In article ,
Rick DeNatale wrote:
...He made a point about it being safer. Of course, it
wouldn't work to dissipate the kinetic energy for an orbital re-entry,
would it?

Not by itself. Indeed, even for a significantly higher suborbital
trajectory, you'd start needing serious thermal protection. Rutan's
cute hinged tail *might* still be useful, though. A winged reentry
vehicle of any kind wants to reenter pretty much belly-forward, and
it's nice if it's more or less aerodynamically stable that way, which
is awkward to arrange otherwise.
--
"Think outside the box -- the box isn't our friend." | Henry Spencer
-- George Herbert |

"OM" om@our_blessed_lady_mary_of_the_holy_NASA_researc h_facility.org wrote
in message ...
On Tue, 22 Jun 2004 11:52:04 +0800, "Neil Gerace"
wrote:

"Diane Wilson" wrote in message
news:MPG.1b416c06d25015289896ee@news-server...
Don't know about orbital re-entry kinetic energy, let alone
re-entry from interplanetary flight.

No-one is suggesting that this particular spacecraft will ever be
orbited,
let alone sent to Mars. People do build prototypes and test articles, you
know.

...And, let us not forget, "two" usually follows "one".

Yes, and I believe that if Paul Allen is really committed to this project,
the orbital tour coach will happen eventually. I'd be looking for Spaceship
XP sometime in the next 15 years

In message MPG.1b4162ae44647e2a9896ed@news-server, Diane Wilson
writes
In article ,
says...
On Mon, 21 Jun 2004 11:16:42 -0400, Rick DeNatale
wrote:

I'm probably not going to be the first to post this, but SS1 just landed
after successfully reaching 62 miles altitude!

Little though I want to contradict you, when last I checked the story
the altitude still wasn't confirmed. That was fairly late today.

According to www.spaceflightnow.com, it was 100.1241 km. 124 meters
to spare!

Wow. They would _not_ have been happy if it was 99.8759 km :-)