Is achievingorbit that easy?

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

Well, Branson's birds come close:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaled_...s_SpaceShipTwo

That's a matter of opinion and/or semantics.

Measured only as altitude they do sort of get into "space" but they don't get more than about 1/7rd of the way to _orbit_. There's no way around the need for orbital velocity.

Personally, I don't think that's very close.

The White Knight carrier aircraft is interesting. The feathered re-entry thing is interesting. The hybrid rocket motor is interesting but it was more interesting before they had that fatal accident at the shop.

I'm not at all sure that this is a vision of the future. You need a massive upgrade of the propulsion system to reach orbit and you probably need to totally re-vamp the skin and general thermal protection qualities for orbital re-entry.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

That's a matter of opinion and/or semantics.

Measured only as altitude they do sort of get into "space" but they don't get more than about 1/7rd of the way to _orbit_. There's no way around the need for orbital velocity.

Personally, I don't think that's very close.

The White Knight carrier aircraft is interesting. The feathered re-entry thing is interesting. The hybrid rocket motor is interesting but it was more interesting before they had that fatal accident at the shop.

I'm not at all sure that this is a vision of the future. You need a massive upgrade of the propulsion system to reach orbit and you probably need to totally re-vamp the skin and general thermal protection qualities for orbital re-entry.

I agree that it has serious limits, but it definitely provides some insight into a how a system might work that uses both air-breathing and rocket engines. It might form the basis of an HST travel system, though.

Personally, I think Blue Origin has a better shot at a real orbit-capable spacecraft, but they're moving pretty slowly.