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in space != Orbit. While an accomplishment no doubt, the utility and difficulty of achieving orbital speeds is not even in the same ballpark as simply flying a
by sathackr 5y ago
in space != Orbit.
While an accomplishment no doubt, the utility and difficulty of achieving orbital speeds is not even in the same ballpark as simply flying above the Karman line.
I used to think differently also but then I learned from KSP how incredibly more difficult achieving orbital velocity(and surviving deceleration from such) is than simply going up and back down.
New Shepard looks like an orbit rocket but is not even close in cabability. SpaceShipTwo would burn up on re-entry if it ever reached orbital speeds.
Years ago when they took the X-prize it was explained as something groundbreaking how they folded the wings for re-entry. I, along with probably the vast majority of the public, equated this re-entry to the same re-entry that the Space Shuttle experiences and felt this was some monumental achievement and advancement of the art.
Again, not to belittle the accomplishment, as it is definitely in an elite realm, but not even close to what is accomplished by Boeing, Lockheed, NASA, SpaceX, and all the other entities actually achieving orbit.
- iso1631 5y agoBack in 2003 when SSO went to 100km, landed, then did it again a couple of weeks later, it was an amazing accomplishment. 18 years later notsomuch. SpaceX have eclipsed it with the F9 and Crew Dragon, let alone the progress they're making on starship. Virgin Orbit is interesting though. Electron is good too. F9 is great. Starship will be shocking if it works. Bezos and Branson though? It's nearer youtuber stuff than grown up rockets.
- qayxc 5y ago> then did it again a couple of weeks later Make that days - 29 September and 4 October 2004.
- rbanffy 5y ago> SpaceShipTwo would burn up on re-entry if it ever reached orbital speeds Our biggest problem with space is having engines good enough. We have nothing that comes close to being remotely adequate. With a decent sci-fi-grade engine, we don't need to use the atmosphere to turn speed into heat - we can just point the engine in the right direction and step on it until we get a manageable speed, then point it down to slow the fall. Again, nothing we have comes even close to this.