FLY FLY AWAY

[1Buckshot]

The hell with ammo. I need to start saving for a ticket to ride fly.  

The Stratolaunch will soon take tourists into spaceMicrosoft co-founder Paul Allen is teaming up with aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan to build a giant machine that is part airplane and part spaceship. The new vehicle will be able to transport people and cargo into Earth's orbit and is scheduled to be commercially available by 2016.

Unlike traditional rockets, the Stratolaunch will not require a launch pad for liftoff. Instead, the plane will ascend to a heightened elevation--and then the rocket portion of the craft will release and blast the ship into space.

Powered by six 747 engines, the new craft should also be far more fuel efficient than traditional shuttle launches, since it will bypass the standard supply of expensive rocket fuel needed to propel a shuttle up from the ground.

The craft will also be enormous, with a wingspan of 385 feet, (making it larger than a football field) while weighing 1.2 million pounds.


And the Stratolaunch will not be restrained by the factors that normally dictate when a shuttle can launch into space from the ground.

Allen and Rutan are competing with other private companies in a race to deliver people and goods to the International Space Station, now that NASA has cancelled its space shuttle program.

The pair are teaming up with another Internet mogul, Elon Musk, founder of PayPal and Tesla, who is providing funds for the spaceship and booster components.

Allen is no stranger to space exploration, having already won the Ansari X Prize in 2004, for his sponsorship of a craft that went into space but not into orbit. If all goes to plan, the Stratolaunch program will be involved in satellite transport--while also promoting space tourism.

[tombogan03884]

 I thought Rutan won the X Prize with his "Spaceship 1" design. The one Virgin Atlantic was considering using for this type of thing. I think these types of projects are great, find a way for industry to profit from space and we will have sci fi type space travel eventually.
The nay sayers will chime in about how it's impractical, expensive, and we should concentrate on problems here on earth.
I say , "f*ck'em" the short sighted said the same thing about airplanes"
There is a certain segment of humanity that requires frontiers to explore, their ancestors left Europe to settle one "new world" our descendants will settle truly "new" worlds.

[Solus]

I thought Rutan won the X Prize with his "Spaceship 1" design. The one Virgin Atlantic was considering using for this type of thing. I think these types of projects are great, find a way for industry to profit from space and we will have sci fi type space travel eventually.
The nay sayers will chime in about how it's impractical, expensive, and we should concentrate on problems here on earth.
I say , "f*ck'em" the short sighted said the same thing about airplanes"
There is a certain segment of humanity that requires frontiers to explore, their ancestors left Europe to settle one "new world" our descendants will settle truly "new" worlds.

Correct.   Think about the innovation generated on this continent before and after the USA was founded.  Geniuses spread all over the land and all the decedents of pioneers.....folks who had to be strong, independent, determined and smart to survive.  In just a couple dozen generations a lot of cream made it to the top.

Another point, as our friend from the EU mentioned in the video of his speech posted here, the grapes of Europe were destroyed but were able to be restarted from cuttings of the grapes migrated to  here many years before.  It would not be a bad thing for humans to have another "vineyard" for our race out there someplace.

I also remember the X-15, the first vehicle to reach "outer space" was launched the same way.   I always wondered why that concept was not expanded.  Perhaps the technology to carry the payloads necessary for a space station supply run are a recent development.

[tombogan03884]

Rocket power is the most expensive, least efficient method of launch.
But it has the advantage of brute force simplicity.
Gerald Bull was looking for a replacement method of launching cargo into orbit when he did the initial research that lead to his design of Saddam's "super gun".