space ship 1 flew 100km (and change) straight up then came down again (like
a rock)
to actually stay "up" at that point you have to execute a left turn and
accelerate to 25 times the speed of sound or 7 kilometers per second (give
or take)
IE there is a fair way to go yet

> -----Original Message-----
> From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu]On Behalf
> Of James Humes
> Sent: Wednesday, September 21, 2005 23:15
> To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
> Subject: Re: [OT] FW: NASA RELEASES PLANS FOR NEXT GENERATION SPACECRAFT
>
>
> I liked the philosophy of the plane that won the X-prize. I'm not clear if
> it made it far enough up to get OUT into space, but I think it proved the
> concept. Why not get into space with a smaller vessel that is
> less expensive
> to launch and then fly over to a space dock to pick up your space-only
> plane. Then you could maybe dock the earth-space vessel to your space-only
> craft and carry it with you as you go to where ever you're going.
> You'd use
> the earth-space vessel as a shuttle craft to the planets we visit
> (after, of
> course, having Mr. Data launch unmanned probes to the planet to
> let us know
> what kind of atmosphere we're dealing with and what kind of fuel
> we'll need
> to get home).
>  Just a thought...
>  James
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