Virgin Flight
- Thread starter fholbert
- Start date
Roger Roger
Bottom of the list
Isn’t Virgin Flight the new ERAU call sign?
290,000 feet +/-
89.9 kilometers
The balloon guy was less than 1/2 that high, I believe.
DropTank
Well-Known Member
EIR
It's 5 o'clock somewhere
Fun event and super last-minute. Woo, what a strange 72 hours it’s been. Ha!
A
Adler
Guest
Let's not forget how this all started.
Burt Rutan, EAA, homebuilt general aviation, Ansari X-Prise, Branson realizing it's cool and funneling a ton of money into it.
Such a cool day.
Burt Rutan, EAA, homebuilt general aviation, Ansari X-Prise, Branson realizing it's cool and funneling a ton of money into it.
Such a cool day.
I wish there was more discussion about the Rutans during the event.
Bob Ridpath
Pit Bull love
Mercury … Gemini … Apollo …
I won’t see where this is ultimately going, I think, but it recalls to me the heady days of long ago when we gave a damn as a Nation and looked to step out into the great beyond, believing that the cost and the sacrifice mattered.
We are better than the mediocrity we embraced for so long and I - at least - am glad someone is looking to the stars again.
YMMV.
I won’t see where this is ultimately going, I think, but it recalls to me the heady days of long ago when we gave a damn as a Nation and looked to step out into the great beyond, believing that the cost and the sacrifice mattered.
We are better than the mediocrity we embraced for so long and I - at least - am glad someone is looking to the stars again.
YMMV.
Inverted25
Well-Known Member
I just can’t get excited about it. I love what space x is doing. That’s space flight to me. Not this 5 second above a altitude that technically is space. Isn’t the same as getting launched on a rocket and spending meaningful time in orbit.
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Autothrust Blue
"Well, on the Brasilia..."
Every billionaire in space* is a policy failure.
* not above the Kármán Line, apparently.
A
Adler
Guest
But don't think if this as completion to NASA and SpaceX.
This is little airplane people, for fun, who built a toy that can fly into (or almost) space. Who cares about some definition line. This is about floating for a few seconds, seeing the earth as very few ever have. For no reason other than fun! Yea it isn't space stations, and Mars, this is aviation at the extreme, and accessable.
fholbert
Mod's - Please don't edit my posts!
I can’t believe this is going to be a profitable company.
Also. How much zero G was due to lack of gravity and how much was simply caused by pushing the nose over?
Beyond that, it was fun to watch the first one.
Autothrust Blue
"Well, on the Brasilia..."
Both of these perspectives are meritorious.
Any zero G situation while in the vicinity of a planet, including while in orbit, is due to the effect of free falling. Pushing the nose over is the same physical effect as 'falling around the planet', which is what happens in orbit - your forward momentum is offset by the pull of gravity, curving your trajectory towards the earth instead of leaving orbit at a tangent. As you fall, you continue to travel forward and you end up continuously falling around the planet. That is how the moon orbits the earth (and the planets orbit the sun). (As a side note, the moon has enough mass to generate its own measurable gravity, irrespective of the planet around which it orbits.)
You have to get quite a large distance from any celestial objects to experience a complete "lack of gravity", and I venture to say that humans have not yet traveled that far from earth (depending upon what threshold you use I suppose). A space vehicle the same distance from the earth as the moon, without any relative velocity, will eventually fall back to earth.
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