The first private astronaut?

Henry Spencer wrote:
[...]
the X-15 was the vehicle that first carried an American into space...

Nope, not correct. The X-15 made only two flights above 100km, both of
them in summer 1963, after not just Shepard and Grissom but also Glenn,
Carpenter, Schirra, and Cooper flew Mercury. When Shepard flew, the X-15
*was* flying, but it was still in testing, gradually expanding its flight
envelope; the highest it had then flown was just over 50km.


A little egg on my face...

Guess I should rewatch that "X-15" movie ;-)

/dps

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"Ed Ruf" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 9 Dec 2004 00:34:07 GMT, in sci.space.policy
(Henry Spencer) wrote:

Nope, not correct. The X-15 made only two flights above 100km, both of
them in summer 1963,

I'm nor yet saying you are wrong Henry, but this doesn't line up with the
info given at http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/Hi...15/chrono.html

October 11, 1961
First flight above 200,000 ft.

July 17, 1962
First flight above 300,000 ft.

also if you look at Figure 2 at
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/Hi...ect/intro.html

are you sure you aren't thinking in meters?

I'm quite sure he's thinking meters... well technically kilometers.

That short only shows two flights over 100km, both in 1963.


__________________________________________________ ______
Ed Ruf Lifetime AMA# 344007 )
http://EdwardGRuf.com

On Wed, 08 Dec 2004 14:26:45 -0800, "D Schneider"
wrote:

Christopher wrote:
(Alan Anderson) wrote:

[...]
It's not silly at all, nor is it a redefinition. It is actually a very
old, very standard way of distinguishing between space and not-space.

(If you want silly, I invite to you refer to TM-379260's "Standard
Orbit"
Technical Order, published in 1975, which explicitly refers to sensible
atmosphere.)

"Standard orbit" as is being in space proper, and not a sub orbit hop.
Hence John Glenn was the first American into space.


Dang it, Christopher, where were you in June?

South Turkey on vacation.

100 KM is an
internationally recognized boundary for space; the X-15 was the vehicle
that first carried an American into space; Shepard is fully recognized as
having been in space during his Mercury hop, and so are the 2 pilots of
SS1. This is old news, and you're asking the Billy Goats Gruff to do the
proper thing if you continue this way.

Billy can please himself. 60 miles might be the 'boundry' but it's
still inside the Earths atmosphere, and not in LEO and real space.
Alan Shepard might have gone 116.5 miles up, but it was so near and
yet so far for getting into space proper.




Christopher
+++++++++++
"Never take anything for granted."

Benjamin Disraeli

"Ed Ruf" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 09 Dec 2004 04:24:44 GMT, in sci.space.policy "Greg D. Moore
\(Strider\)" wrote:


I'm quite sure he's thinking meters... well technically kilometers.

Doh! Even though it clear said this, my brain saw kft. Burning the candle
at both ends and plotting altitudes in kft must have left it's mark.
Sorry.

That's ok, I had to read it 3-4 times to make sure that you had made a
mistake and that *I* wasn't missing something there. :-)


__________________________________________________ ______
Ed Ruf Lifetime AMA# 344007 )
http://EdwardGRuf.com