Who is interested ? Any new plans from NASA or DC ? What are the Euros doing ?
Nasa just reported they wanted to push up the space plane project to replace the shuttle. What plane are they talking about?
thats great. Lockheed had built a prototype of the X 22 VentureStar that was supposed to replace the Shuttle very soon. Bush Jr axed it. All it needed was a little more $ to fix problems with the new engines & the carbon fiber fuel tank. really PO's me that Bush axed it, Stupid. I havent heard of any next gen prototypes since the X22, maybe Lockheed or Boeing has some new proposals. The Japanese recently unveiled their own version of the Delta Clipper which was another cool project that got the axe under Clinton. essentially its a reusable cargo robot to boost stuff into orbit then it comes back down on auto pilot. it could take off & land vertically, even fly sideways, this is a rocket we are talking about, which was amazing I believe we have the technology to build a manned ship that could go to Mars in 90 days or the Moon in 3 days its just that these stupid politicians want to go off & fight in Iraq & keep the Middle east status quo going. Stupid. Hell we could probably build a ship that closes on lightspeed if we werent spending $87B to occupy Iraq & make the world hate the US even more. Stupid
Seems like a good idea... just fly into space. The Black Bird flew into space and that was designed in the 60's I looked at NASA web site... and what they have done, is finished a spec sheet for what they want out of a space plane. They have sent it to both houses of Congress. I guess if they get that approved... then they set up a race between any companies that want to submit a prototype. this seems to be what everyone is showing these days...
Mark: I have thsoe same images. Very slick, originals are huge. William: ok, so you want to forego on-earth stability for missions to the moon and beyond. My only question: to what end? When we don't know anything about our own planet (seas, etc.) - what is the real point of sendnig more people out to the moon? Or worse yet, why are we exploring Mars? I have always been fascinated by the science, technology and human aspects of space travel, etc. - but I can't necessarily agree that it's a dominant necessity. --Dan
I like looking at the layers of this Nebula. It allows for a better understanding of the mysterious process... that transformes a low-mass star into a white dwarf star. I guess we will have to slove the problem of the 10th Centry (radical Islum terrorist)... before we can get back to the fun of discovering the 22nd Centry. Not enough money to do both
I've always been interested in space, and space exploration, science in general really. It's really interesting. It's hard to imagine some of those nebula's are light years across. The Eagle Nebula for example, amazing. That's an awesome pic
The Hyper-X is interesting: X-43 fact sheet from NASA The white thing behind it is the X-36 Tailless Fighter Agility Research Aircraft. Yes, they are both that small.
I think the SR71 flys at the edge of space the X15 actually went into space, Chuck Yeager flew a modified F104 with small manuevering rockets on the nose into space. Ive heard that the Chinese bought or stole the USSR plans for the Buran, the Russian shuttle which flew into space once unmanned. I'm sure the Chinese have the plans for building a US type shuttle as well. There are 2 or 3 private Cos who are now working on smaller space shuttles, Rutan the famed aviation pioneer is one of them