Virgin Galactic, Branson's space venture

[tater]

1 hour ago, mikegarrison said:

No. AFAIK only 747s were ever built to do that. At the time the 747 was designed, high bypass ratio turbofans were brand new, and there was a real risk that an airplane could be stranded someplace with difficult access for spare engines. That's not so much a concern now, except in places like Iran or Russia where the difficulty for bringing in a spare parts is political rather than technical.

Stratolaunch should really use a 747 until/if they ever get to a point they actually need their giant aircraft. The cost/simplicity of operating such a reliable platform has to be better than whatever the name of their giant plane is (I forgot, lol). I actually know someone working for them... maybe I should email him, we haven't talked in years.

[mikegarrison]

28 minutes ago, tater said:

Stratolaunch should really use a 747 until/if they ever get to a point they actually need their giant aircraft. The cost/simplicity of operating such a reliable platform has to be better than whatever the name of their giant plane is (I forgot, lol). I actually know someone working for them... maybe I should email him, we haven't talked in years.

Roc

Named after the mythical bird.

[tater]

Also:

https://spacenews.com/u-k-government-wont-buy-virgin-orbit/

Faust says UK not gonna buy Virgin.

[Meecrob]

Duplicate, please delete.

Edited May 19, 2023 by Meecrob

[Meecrob]

3 hours ago, tater said:

I was thinking the 777, etc. Do they have the capability to ferry engines, or do they use bespoke transport aircraft for that?

Sorry if that wasn't clear. It's the superpower that makes Cosmic Girl a relatively easy thing to have for air-drop launches.

I believe the 777 engines are able to have the fan disassembled from the core and are carried as main deck cargo on two separate pallets.

[tater]

So Stratolaunch got Cosmic Girl, Rocket Lab got their shop in CA, and Launcher/Vast got the other stuff. Virgin Orbit is no more.

[Meecrob]

Sounds like Startolaunch got some spares.

[mikegarrison]

I seem to recall that the Stratolauncher Roc is made up of a lot of 747 hardware mixed in with custom-designed structure by Scaled Composites. My guess is that they are interested in parting out the airplane.

[tater]

Local news in New Mexico is reporting that Virgin Galactic might be flying tomorrow.

[tater]

 

[tater]

No livestream except NSF... but then you have to listen to their patter.

[darthgently]

52 minutes ago, tater said:

No livestream except NSF... but then you have to listen to their patter.

And oh my, what a patter...

[tater]

2 minutes ago, darthgently said:

And oh my, what a patter...

Scott Manley is on there at least. Just too much talking.

[tater]

 

[StrandedonEarth]

Did they now…? Officially? What altitude did they reach?

[tater]

20 minutes ago, StrandedonEarth said:

Did they now…? Officially? What altitude did they reach?

50-something miles. They use the USAF definition.

Here we go:

87 km. If they used nautical miles it would be >100km.

[mikegarrison]

1 hour ago, tater said:

50-something miles. They use the USAF definition.

Here we go:

87 km. If they used nautical miles it would be >100km.

AFAIK, no one uses nautical miles for altitude. Very few use statute miles.

Edited May 25, 2023 by mikegarrison

[tater]

50 minutes ago, mikegarrison said:

AFAIK, no one uses nautical miles for altitude. Very few use statute miles.

 

Regardless, the AF used 50 statute miles (~80km) for their astronaut definition. Sure at the time they simply used feet, lol.

[mikegarrison]

We've had this discussion before, but the whole thing is basically arbitrary. Obviously 100 km or 50 miles were selected because they are round numbers. Air-breathing airplanes can't fly that high anyway, and satellites can't stay in orbit that low anyway, so these are just arbitrary lines drawn in the no-ship's-land between airplanes and satellites.

[tater]

1 hour ago, mikegarrison said:

We've had this discussion before, but the whole thing is basically arbitrary. Obviously 100 km or 50 miles were selected because they are round numbers. Air-breathing airplanes can't fly that high anyway, and satellites can't stay in orbit that low anyway, so these are just arbitrary lines drawn in the no-ship's-land between airplanes and satellites.

Yeah, I agree completely. I'm not into the ****ing match between the suborbital providers on what constitutes space, I was merely mentioning they use the USAF definition (good enough for the X-15, good enough for me!).

As for the nautical miles thing, I remember it from Shuttle, so I knew it was sometimes used.

EDIT: The fact that the Rush song "Countdown" is in my playlist and I hear it every so often since forever makes remembering the callouts easier

Spoiler

 

 

Edited May 25, 2023 by tater

[StrandedonEarth]

1 hour ago, tater said:

EDIT: The fact that the Rush song "Countdown" is in my playlist and I hear it every so often since forever makes remembering the callouts easier

Yeah, it’s on my playlist too and it does have some good comm clips: “39 nautical miles in altitude, 42 nautical miles downrange…. [something that sounds unprintable but must be ‘nice view, nice view,’ it seems late for MaxQ]… 6200 feet per second.”

So I had to do some research, if one can call Wikipedia research. The commentary was by Hugh Harris, KSC Public Affairs Officer, so I’m guessing he was using the numbers available to him. 

There’s also a story on that wiki page about how the song came to be:

Quote

 

We met our liaison man, who conducted us safely into the "V.I.P." zone (Red Sector A) in the pre-dawn hours. We were due to play that night in Dallas, so we couldn't wait much longer. Finally they announced that the launch would be scrubbed for that day. Well, we ran for the car, and our daring driver sped off, around the traffic jams, down the median of the highway, and got us to the airport barely in time.

The next night we had a show in San Antonio, after which we drove off immediately, clambered into a hired jet, and flew straight back to Florida. This time the launch took place on schedule, and it was SOMETHING!!

I remember thinking to myself as we flew back to Fort Worth after a couple days without sleep: "We've got to write a song about this!" It was an incredible thing to witness, truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I can only hope that the song comes even close to capturing the excitement and awe that we felt that morning.

— Neil Peart in the Signals tour book.

 

I think they succeeded... 

Not-on-mobile edit: I so wanted to do a Kerbal re-creation of the Countdown video, but I don't have the time for my fledgling skills to pull it off

 

Edited May 25, 2023 by StrandedonEarth
fixed quote box

[tater]

 

[Ultimate Steve]

4 hours ago, mikegarrison said:

We've had this discussion before, but the whole thing is basically arbitrary. Obviously 100 km or 50 miles were selected because they are round numbers. Air-breathing airplanes can't fly that high anyway, and satellites can't stay in orbit that low anyway, so these are just arbitrary lines drawn in the no-ship's-land between airplanes and satellites.

I think the duck test is applicable. If it looks like space and feels like space, then it is space enough for my purposes.

[tater]

 

[GuessingEveryDay]

2 hours ago, tater said:

 

Well, that begs the question, which country will be the next to include military operations in space? US and Russia(maybe?) are the first, who could be next?