autonomous wrote:Sadly this is the fourth death related to the engine technology used by Virgin Galatic.
They're trying to do too much with such a small craft. Trying to get thrust that they can't get with that size.
And they don't have the budget of the government to try something else out, and even the gov would have canceled this by now, after half a billion dollars spent.
I'm feeling mixed about this -- we do need to move forward on space planes.
But you can't leave that up to P.T. Barnum to do it, either (Richard Branson, God bless him, but he's a loose cannon).
I think they need a traditional rocket engine, and they need a bigger spaceplane and bigger mothership plane and then they wouldn't need the exotic fuel mixtures. It's a question of scale and their craft is too small to get the thrust they need.
I'm trying to think, here, hasn't the USAF already figured this all out back in the '50s? Didn't Chuck Yeager get to suborbital?
If no, then how on earth can a startup ever achieve what even the US military couldn't do.
Overall it's a good idea, I think it just needs the military funding it and figuring it out -- use jet fuel to get up to the edge of space and then fire the rocket engines to push you over the edge into suborbital.
I'm also wondering, by the way, I thought VG had achieved suborbital in test flights but I heard that woman on CNN today saying the engine is crap and never would have got anyone to suborbital. I wonder what the truth is, did they ever get above the atmosphere, was the heat shield ever tested? If so, then really that's impressive, what were they using for a heat shield. That alone is one of the biggest challenges, re-entry in a space plane and not incinerating. Was a major challenge for the shuttle, and the columbia was lost when some heat shield tiles got damaged.
It is, as they say, "rocket science" and VG was trying the hardest and most elusive rocket science there is -- space planes.