Space Ship One

[flaninacupboard]

well, the guy is in the sky by now, reading the paper today his cabin is pressurised so he's not wearing a space suit!
Hope that works out ok...... Anyone else see the module land in the sea and get trashed?

[shoozleboy]

Just read on Yahoo! news that it was a success!

He reached the intended altitude of 62 miles and was able to see the curvature of the earth, the blackness of space, and experience the weightlessness.

Mike Melvill was the pilots name. First civilian flight to reach space.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=2&u=/nm/20040621/ts_nm/space_flight_dc

[Faustus]

Very cool. Starbucks logo covering the moon is 5....4....3...2.... this countdown brought to you by Ford, buy a ford..... 1 !!!

[Doramius]

Next time I save up $20 million, I might take a quick trip to space. :P

[BobV]

I think the real news here is that they did it for pennies as compaired to what it costs the feds. ... however no surprize

[gitreel]

What do you expect? The feds will spend a million to collect 20 dollars. :P

[flaninacupboard]

i think what's more impressive than just the cost is the fact they achieved something in a few years NASA couldn't do in deades, a completely re-usable system. ok, it may not have the carrying capacity of a shuttle, but for people visiting/leaving the ISS it would be ideal.

let's see how much scaled composites sell the info for

[Cobra]

I heard the BBC saying that "space travel is now in reach of the common man".

Idiots. The BBC don't think before they say something an more, do they?

[flaninacupboard]

they're correct in one respect, if you have the money you can do it, regardless of who you are. it's like saying traversing the globe by jet plane is in reach of the common man, it is. i couldn't afford it, but it's doable. some of us are more common than others though

[shoozleboy]

I was reading some more about this last night - did you know that they used "laughing gas" and "rubber" to fuel the rocket? Well, not rubber as you and I know it, but hydroxy-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB), a common ingredient in tire rubber.

Article on it below:


http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/sso_fuel_techwed_040616.html

[jeex]

man, i cant wait til i get my space car. i'm gonna go by the international space station and flipoff andre kuipers..

[flaninacupboard]

can you imagine jeex flying through spaced as our intergalactic representative.....

[jeex]

i'll start universe war I (and only).. i'll be the dubya of space.