SPACE

[Bog]

Long story short, SpaceShipTwo's the "tourism" bird - AKA Tier 1b. SpaceShipThree is goaled as being an orbiter, rather than a suborb hopper. That really changes the beat.

WhiteKnightTwo is scheduled to fly late this year, and SpaceShipTwo's flight test ought to start about the same time - they're going to test the living crap out of it before letting any civvies in. The fuel-pump explosion last summer set things back a fair bit, like you'd expect, but it's not stopped things by any measure.

Sir Richard's not the only one buying SS2/WK2 combos, though - other folk are more than a little interested. Also, there's nothing stopping WhiteKnightTwo from carrying heavy cargo rockets, rather than manned tourism birds. It's a flexible platform. And due to be rolled out well before Chrimbo this year, so I'm happy and confident that We Just Ain't Done Yet when it comes to manned - and commercial - spaceflight. In fact, I think we're only just beginning. There's a wide horizon out there... and we'll have our chance to see it.

[Dio]

they're going to test the living crap out of it before letting any civvies in.

Carmack's quote last month was that he expected 100 proving flights with his final vehicle before entering commercial service.

[Stone]

Sir Richard's not the only one buying SS2/WK2 combos, though - other folk are more than a little interested.

Did I hear rumours about DHL? Sub-orbital parcel delivery, now that'd be something businesses would pay for!

I totally love all this stuff. We so need to get our moonbase running so I can emigrate

Stone

[Bog]

they're going to test the living crap out of it before letting any civvies in.

Carmack's quote last month was that he expected 100 proving flights with his final vehicle before entering commercial service.

That's correct - 100 flights is the schedule for testing.

[axel000]

Nice pic of the Orion's launch-abort rocket system test firing (tested upside down).

[axel000]

Some pics of the less known transport vehicles at KSC from nasa.gov

Orbiter transporter (Hi-res version)



Payload transporter (Hi-res version)



SRB transporter (Hi-res version)

[axel000]

Well here's an interesting project - a skydiver is planning on making a freefall jump from the edge of space, 140,000 feet, this month.



If successful, the following world records will be broken :

- Altitude record for freefall
- Altitude record for human balloon flight
- Time record for longest freefall
- Speed record for fastest freefall

Reminds me of that old bowie movie

[Bog]

Thans, Axel

[disciple]

Nice pic of the Orion's launch-abort rocket system test firing (tested upside down).

Whoaah!

God knows what the technical terminology is but you can clearly see the wavy things in the fiery bit.

[Bog]

They're called Shock Diamonds.

Gorgeous, aren't they?

[noodles]

That's no moon!

That's no TV satellite dish !

[axel000]

More constellation pics

[Istar]

So, it looks like I'm going to the moon.

Well, my name is, anyway. Wanna take a ride? http://lro.jhuapl.edu/NameToMoon/

[benedictw]

So, it looks like I'm going to the moon.

Well, my name is, anyway. Wanna take a ride? http://lro.jhuapl.edu/NameToMoon/

Keplers doing much the same:
http://www.seti.org/kepler/names/

[Darkflame]

Whoa...been awhile since I had time to check this thread (get too involved)

Some drop-dead gorgeous photos here.

So ScaledComposites & Co are looking to orbital stuff then? fantastic.

I don't have any faith in the capacity of small scale private enterprise being enough for this,

I have more faith in their capacity long term, then I do in any govements vision for this stuff