Virgin Galactic, Branson's space venture

[benzman]

3 hours ago, wumpus said:

"first ever commercial space pilots and will be receiving their space wings": where does Mike Melvill [pilot for Spaceship 1] fit in this?

Here ya go:- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Melvill

And:- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceShipOne_flight_15P

 

[Vanamonde]

Overlapping threads have been merged. 

[Ultimate Steve]

1 hour ago, benzman said:

 

And:- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceShipOne_flight_15P

I hadn't read about this in depth before. This sounds like an average Kerbal flight:

Quote

Shortly after ignition, at about 60,000 feet (18 km), the craft unexpectedly rolled 90 degrees to the left, due to wind shear. When the pilot attempted to correct it, it rolled 90 degrees to the right. The pilot levelled the craft out, and proceeded with the climb. The correction of the roll excursion, using full trim, caused a pitch trim tab to run up against a stop. This caused the trim actuator, as designed, to stop operating for a 3 s timeout. Not realising what had happened, the pilot and controllers interpreted this as failure of the trim actuator, and they switched to a backup system. Spacecraft attitude was problematic during the entire climb, and not corrected until the start of re-entry.

During the burn, a new aerodynamic fairing installed around the rocket nozzle overheated, became too soft, and crumpled inwards. This caused a loud bang, which the pilot reported, but did not cause a flight problem.

And...

Quote

 

The planned apogee altitude was 360,000 feet (110 km), but due to the attitude problem encountered during the climb the craft actually attained only 328,491 feet (100,124 m)

Just barely made it into space!

 

 

[Racescort666]

4 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said:

I hadn't read about this in depth before. This sounds like an average Kerbal flight:

And...

Just barely made it into space!

 

 

Sounds like the dude is straight up BA. He must be Jeb’s cousin or something.

[4472TJ]

15 hours ago, wumpus said:

"first ever commercial space pilots and will be receiving their space wings": where does Mike Melvill [pilot for Spaceship 1] fit in this?

ERM... I have an explanation (sorry Mike), I have been reading lots of factually incorrect webpages and just took it as true, until everyone here started correcting me!

[DDE]

15 hours ago, YNM said:

Oh, yeah, that slips off my focus !

Well, they ain't sending men to orbit on those wing-mounted missile-on-steroids... (unless someone orders a launch, packs themselves in, then slips on probably !)

That thing’s tiny.

We’re talking Project Adam tiny.

[MinimumSky5]

I'm sorry, but what has happened to that guys legs? Artists, take note, plan your drawings before committing to them! 

[DDE]

3 minutes ago, MinimumSky5 said:

I'm sorry, but what has happened to that guys legs? Artists, take note, plan your drawings before committing to them! 

Something like this:

Because Project Adam was about reusing baloon pod designs for a proto-Mercury.

[MinimumSky5]

No, I get where they were meant to go, but look closely at the diagram, the artist has given that guy a second set of knees in his thighs, that bend backwards. 

[YNM]

2 hours ago, DDE said:

We’re talking Project Adam tiny.

Well if there're any daredevils out there !

[GearsNSuch]

3 hours ago, MinimumSky5 said:

... a second set of knees in his thighs that bend backwards. 

That sounds incredibly comfortable. Where can I get some?

[Ozymandias_the_Goat]

1 hour ago, GearsNSuch said:

That sounds incredibly comfortable. Where can I get some?

Consider your local sears. 

[Xd the great]

1 hour ago, GearsNSuch said:

That sounds incredibly comfortable. Where can I get some?

On Mars.

[DDE]

5 hours ago, GearsNSuch said:

That sounds incredibly comfortable. Where can I get some?

You unlucky boshtet.

[tater]

Virgin working with UnderArmour for their gear (who cares).

Branson going up himself this year (makes sense for sales, if nothing else).

Moving operations to here in NM (good, since my taxes subsidized his spaceport).

[Xd the great]

21 hours ago, tater said:

Branson going up himself this year (makes sense for sales, if nothing else).

Works well as a tourist guide

[tater]

So they might fly tomorrow.

[tater]

 

[tater]

 

 

[Ultimate Steve]

90% of the way to actual space... I wonder if they can get 10% more power out of it.

[tater]

15 minutes ago, Ultimate Steve said:

90% of the way to actual space... I wonder if they can get 10% more power out of it.

The 100km line is in fact as arbitrary as 50 nm is. There's some reasonable work about where the von Karman line should in fact be (he set it below 100km, himself, after all).

https://arxiv.org/abs/1807.07894

[DDE]

3 hours ago, tater said:

The 100km line is in fact as arbitrary as 50 nm is. There's some reasonable work about where the von Karman line should in fact be (he set it below 100km, himself, after all).

https://arxiv.org/abs/1807.07894

Yeah, and the Russian media just ran a clickbait storm about SOHO data suggesting Earth's atmosphere extends beyond the Moon  

[Ultimate Steve]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tater]

Heheh:

 

[insert_name]

1 hour ago, tater said:

Heheh:

 

Is that NG's bid for XS-1 with the Virgin galactic logo photoshopped on it?