http://gadgetmaniac.mail2web.com/2004/10/spaceshipone/ Cool Gadgets and Beyond Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:20:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 http://gadgetmaniac.mail2web.com/2004/10/spaceshipone/comment-page-1/#comment-814 Steve Wed, 13 Oct 2004 16:02:47 +0000 http://gadgetmaniac.mail2web.com/?p=2678#comment-814 Space Ship One is a great achievement - no doubt about it. However, it is worthwhile to put it in prespective. SSO went up 100km and "fell" right back down again in a controlled descent. To stay in orbit around the earth at an altitude of 100 km. requires 32 times as much kinetic energy. That explains why the big difference between the takeoff and re-entry of the Space Shuttle compared with the flight of this little fiberglass marvel called Space Ship One. I'm not knocking the achievement - just pointing out that there needs to be a Y-Prize or a Z-Prize for whoever can first privately put a spacecraft in earth orbit. Space Ship One is a great achievement - no doubt about it. However, it is worthwhile to put it in prespective. SSO went up 100km and “fell” right back down again in a controlled descent. To stay in orbit around the earth at an altitude of 100 km. requires 32 times as much kinetic energy. That explains why the big difference between the takeoff and re-entry of the Space Shuttle compared with the flight of this little fiberglass marvel called Space Ship One. I’m not knocking the achievement - just pointing out that there needs to be a Y-Prize or a Z-Prize for whoever can first privately put a spacecraft in earth orbit.

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