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First Air-Breathing Spacecraft
- weregiraffe 11mo agoSee GOCE sat for reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOCE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOCE
- jojobas 11mo agoTo those wondering, this is about using the thin air of near space to maintain orbit, not Skylon/SABRE-style air-breathing launch vehicle.
- ksec 11mo agoThis is Editorialised headline. Headline should be Redwire Awarded $44 Million DARPA Contract to Advance Very Low-Earth Orbit Mission Edit: And for those who are downvoting, it is actually in the guideline for submission. Otherwise please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize.
- Sevii 11mo agoHow is this a spacecraft? It can't ever leave orbit of a planet with an atmosphere.
- Dylan16807 11mo agoNeither could the space shuttle but surely that's a spacecraft. Why would it have to leave a planet to count?
- jojobas 11mo agoMost spacecraft we know of never left the Earth orbit anyway.
- dvrj101 11mo agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacecraft#Crewed_and_uncrewed_spacecraft https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacecraft#Crewed_and_uncrewed...
- phire 11mo agoIt spends it's entire mission above the Kármán line (100km), so it is legitimately in space, and is therefore a spacecraft, like all other satellites.
- jonplackett 11mo agoThis whole thing is just corporate speak and self evangelising. There isn’t even any info on how it works.
- phire 11mo agoThis video covers the general concept, and even mentions redwire at the end Air Breathing Satellites in Very Low Earth Orbit (13:12) - Eager Space : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEfatzhHhvg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEfatzhHhvg
- deleted 11mo ago[deleted]
- system2 11mo agoI am glad I am not the owner of rwd.com because I'd fire this writer. What the heck is an Air-Breathing Spacecraft?
- Dylan16807 11mo agoIt's a spacecraft that scoops up air to put into its propulsion system. There's an annoying lack of details here, but that part is simple.
- foxglacier 11mo ago"air-breathing" is a common term for engines that use oxygen from the ambient air instead of from a tank - also people do this too. In this case though, it's just using the air as reaction mass though. Space begins at a lower altitude than the atmosphere ends so even a space-craft can be air-breathing, in principle, at least.
- IAmBroom 11mo agoSo it could be, but isn't, air-breathing. And the title is misleading and clickbaity.
- foxglacier 11mo agoIs your complaint that it's only been allocated funding and doesn't actually exist yet? That's a bit of a stretch for click-bait. It's still an unusual type of vehicle. Turns out an engine can be air-breathing even it it doesn't burn fuel with the oxygen from the air, but just uses it as reaction mass so this concept would still be air-breathing if it existed.