4 ms·
The legacy of the North American X-15
- ambicapter 10y agoThe X-20 looks like the Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipOne (and SpaceShipTwo).
- mordant 10y agoYou got that precisely backwards, heh. During the X-Prize launches, I observed that what Burt Rutan had done was to build himself an X-15, and then build himself a B-52 to launch it.
- douche 10y agoThere is just so much wasted potential in the early 70s. It's really the death of optimism in human progress.
- RachelF 10y agoNot the death of optimism, just the winning of the NASA bureaucracy in keeping the organization size by pushing the "cheaper" space shuttle. With the benefit of hindsight, flying into space with the X-15's successors would have happened if there was not a need to beat the Soviets quickly with rockets. Also throwing away the Saturn rockets after around 20 launches was just silly.
- mordant 10y agoCorrect on all counts. Turning those remaining Saturn Vs into lawn ornaments was criminal.
- mordant 10y agoI believe that the apotheosis of human achievement was likely around 1974 or thereabouts. The rest is just incrementalism which is more than cancelled out by serious backsliding all the way around.
- 100k 10y agoIf you're interested in the dead end of space planes, Tom Wolfe's "The Right Stuff" covers how the program lost out to the Mercury system.