Space Age Wright Brothers

[Bighoss]

Folks this may very well be the wright brothers of our time. This craft has gone up near space several times. Its cheap to launch and reusable.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3811881.stm

[Triggar]

Burt Rutan is amazing. I've been following the progress of Space Ship One since I had to do a report on it last semester. I wonder how the other competitors in the X-Prize competition feel about being so close to losing the $10 million prize.

[Kaltagesta]

Thats so awesome.

[Rbstr]

you know its probably costing a bunch more than 10 mill to make the thing, isn't it?

You know what i know one thing i may do when i grow up, Aerospace Engineering.

[Triggar]

Then come to Embry Riddle.

Yeah, the point isn't that they'd win a huge financial prize, the point is that they'd open the door to commercial space travel.

[ZionsFire]

I am going to live on the moon...

[AztecWarrior]

Burt Rutan pwns our bones. He designed the aircraft that flew around the world WITHOUT refueling.

[Triggar]

The flying fuel tank? That was sweet.

[Fragmatic]

Did you know Gabe Newell (From Valve) is also taking part in that competition?

[Dharkbayne]

Did you know Gabe Newell (From Valve) is also taking part in that competition?

Haha, I see it now, the day before the competition "We were stolen from, we'll have to start all over, ETA April 26th, 2006"

[Fragmatic]

Haha, I see it now, the day before the competition "We were stolen from, we'll have to start all over, ETA April 26th, 2006"

:rolleyes:

[Sputty]

BTW, expect it to be more than 20 years before space trips are common. there's no reason to go into space. There's nothing there except perhaps a good view and weightlessness. Until the atmosphere bouncing aircraft(they go at like 5000 kph by bouncing off the atmosphere) are used there's no real reason to go into space.

[Red October]

I live in Palmdale, not too far from the launch area. It will be interesting...but I'll be at work :doh:

[EarlyDawn]

Did you know Gabe Newell (From Valve) is also taking part in that competition?You sure you're not talking about the lead designer of Doom? I think it's John Carmack.

[Hamma]

This is pretty cool, heard about it the other day :D

[Mushnator]

This has been going on for a while.

It looks a little... weird to me.

[Triggar]

BTW, expect it to be more than 20 years before space trips are common. there's no reason to go into space. There's nothing there except perhaps a good view and weightlessness.

The point of the X-Prize isn't so that people can launch to the moon easily. It's to reduce the time it takes to fly places - by flying a high arc rather than going straight across the globe, you significantly reduce time and fuel.

[SDM]

http://premium.cnn.com/pr/video/meta/tech/2004/06/02/vo.spaceship.inflight.affl.300k.asx?embed=true&(none)=