The X-plane

[johnfowles]

Anybody who is interested in the future of space travel might like to see these nice videos of the two flights by Burt Rutan's
revolutionary SpaceShipOne

as it wins the Ansari X-Prize! worth $10 million:- http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/video.htm
On my slow dial-up it takes forever to buffer but the videos are great and well worth looking
at for those blessed with a high speed internet connection
John
Why is it called lipstick if you can still move your lips


[This message has been edited by johnfowles (edited October 14, 2004).]

[Borderstone]

Looks like a ship from "Star Trek:Voyager".
Kinda cool,but you'd never get me on one.

------------------
"A knight of the road,going back to a place where he might get warm." - Borderstone

I'd volunteer in a second. I'd love to see the earth from space.

quote:Originally posted by Borderstone:
Looks like a ship from "Star Trek:Voyager".
Kinda cool,but you'd never get me on one.

Ya know, I thought the space shuttle was amazing the first time I saw it land, but this is incredible. It lands like a prop plane! Wow, where do I sign up and how much do I have to save up to take a flight?

I think it also explains the vapor trail I saw earlier this month that went straight up. I remember staring at it thinking "What kind of plane would leave a vertical trail like that?" Does it say somewhere if the second flight took place in California or Nevada?

[This message has been edited by violet Blue Horse (edited October 15, 2004).]

[Auburn Annie]

This brings me back to when I was ten (1962) and the excitement good ol' Uncle Walt demonstrated - along with the rest of us - as the enormous Atlas rockets fired up, shook the ceiling tiles loose in the broadcast booth, and finally rumbled off the launch pad:

"While Glenn's aviation achievements were many, they were eclipsed in the fearful thunder and enormous clouds of steam and burned fuel on Feb. 20, 1962. Americans, riveted to their televisions, held their collective breath as the three main engines of the massive Atlas rocket ignited, lifting ever so slowly the Marine lieutenant colonel in his smaller-than-a-Volkswagen capsule, dubbed Friendship 7, off the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Fla.

In mission control, fellow astronaut Scott Carpenter said, "Godspeed, John Glenn," and the usually unflappable news anchor Walter Cronkite yelled, "Go, baby, go!"

It was the first manned orbital mission of the United States, and once free of Earth's gravity, Glenn radioed "Zero G, and I feel fine."

(From The Leatherneck Arhives, http://www.mca-marines.org/Leatherneck/glenn.htm)

And I can still hear Cronkite's excited voice 42 years later. Sometimes life is good.