BS: Bound for Space! Space Ship One

Subject: BS: Bound for Space! Space Ship One
From: Amos
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 06:53 PM

Let us sing praises to those who still have the nerve and talent to organize such ventures as the recent flights into space by a privately built ship, the Space Ship One.

Here's an excerpt fromt he VOA Radio program on it:

"Businessman Paul Allen was among those in the large crowd who watched the flight on Monday. He is one of the founders of the Microsoft Company. Mister Allen helped pay for the Space Ship One project. Mister Allen says he spent more than twenty million dollars on the project. He says he has wanted to be part of space research since he was a small boy.

Richard Branson, who owns Virgin Airlines, was also there. He says he will buy several larger spacecraft from Mister Rutan. Mister Branson wants to start a business to take passengers into space. He says more than five thousand people have offered to pay for a seat on the first flights to space.

News of the flight of Space Ship One was also sent to the International Space Station. Astronaut Mike Fincke and Cosmonaut Gennady Padalka welcomed Astronaut Binnie into space. The International Space Station team said it was great to learn that for a while on Monday they were not the only people off the planet Earth."

For all that we get hauled back a step now and again, we are, as a species, still bound for a destiny larger than our past. I have this somewhere deep inside me as an article of faith -- the human race is charting a future. One which transcends anything we have known hitherto. SS1 is just a small step in that direction, but a brilliant example of the genre.

Here's to Space Ship One, and her men and women and all like them on Earth.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Bound for Space! Space Ship One
From: Amos
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 07:43 PM

Perfreky.

Subject: RE: BS: Bound for Space! Space Ship One
From: Bobert
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 08:04 PM

Awesome....

Subject: RE: BS: Bound for Space! Space Ship One
From: Little Hawk
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 08:30 PM

This is good. They should definitely hire William Shatner as a consultant on this project, due to his extensive experience of space travel and alien lifeforms (like the cannibal stewardesses of Cygnus Five...).

Subject: RE: BS: Bound for Space! Space Ship One
From: Rapparee
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 08:48 PM

I raised my glass to them last night!

Now let's get on with it....

Subject: RE: BS: Bound for Space! Space Ship One
From: Amos
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 11:50 PM

LH:

Take a FF at TM....


A

Subject: RE: BS: Bound for Space! Space Ship One
From: Amos
Date: 06 Oct 04 - 10:21 AM

A recent article covering the event and its historic significance.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Bound for Space! Space Ship One
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 06 Oct 04 - 10:28 AM

"Into space" has to mean getting into orbit rather than just up and down. It's like the difference between flying and jumping. And they're still some way short of that.

Subject: RE: BS: Bound for Space! Space Ship One
From: Amos
Date: 06 Oct 04 - 10:49 AM

Into space means beyond the limits of Earth's atmosphere. A complete orbit is not required. LEO is not required. What is required is a distance fromt he surface of the earth in a perpendicular line of measurement. I forget the exact number of kilometers.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Bound for Space! Space Ship One
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Oct 04 - 11:12 AM

sixty - two miles

Subject: RE: BS: Bound for Space! Space Ship One
From: Amos
Date: 06 Oct 04 - 11:16 AM

Ta.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Bound for Space! Space Ship One
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 06 Oct 04 - 11:48 AM

That might be the definition for the purpose of the prize. I seem to remember that they used the same kind of definition for US astronauts at one time, but everyone knew that what really counted was getting into orbit like Yuri Gagarin.

The real breakthrough is going to be some way of getting up there without rockets - probably a Space Elevator .

Subject: RE: BS: Bound for Space! Space Ship One
From: Mrrzy
Date: 06 Oct 04 - 12:02 PM

Yee hah!

Subject: RE: BS: Bound for Space! Space Ship One
From: Amos
Date: 06 Oct 04 - 01:47 PM

The materials for a Space Elevator are getting closer all the time, and of all the challenges, materials is the big one. The man who invented the Buckyball carbon-fullerene molecule has dome the world a huge favor.

A