One confirmed dead as Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo destroyed in test flight

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One confirmed dead as Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo destroyed in test flight

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November 1, 2014 at 4:43 am

#682793
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tryptameanie

@tryptameanie

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Space is still not easy.
One confirmed dead as Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo destroyed in test flight [Updated] | Ars Technica
November 1, 2014 at 10:01 am

#831489
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General Lighting

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I still remember in 1986 when the science teachers in my high school set up two of the big screen colour TVs ( particularly robust well built ones in special enclosures; I think all Northern European schools had them) – with one feeding the tuner composite output to the other along 50m of coax (this was advanced stuff back then!) so the whole school could watch the Challenger space shuttle (perhaps some UN / international idea as there was a science teacher amongst the crew).

Of course we just saw the whole thing go kaboom (with all 7 on board) in front of our eyes; the same year Chernobyl went up. it was that year I started thinking that whilst science and technology are of course good things; we should consider the human aspects of them…
November 1, 2014 at 10:05 am

#831490
1

tryptameanie

@tryptameanie

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@General Lighting 572346 wrote:

I still remember in 1986 when the science teachers in my high school set up two of the big screen colour TVs ( particularly robust well built ones in special enclosures; I think all Northern European schools had them) – with one feeding the tuner composite output to the other along 50m of coax (this was advanced stuff back then!) so the whole school could watch the Challenger space shuttle (perhaps some UN / international idea as there was a science teacher amongst the crew).

Of course we just saw the whole thing go kaboom (with all 7 on board) in front of our eyes; the same year Chernobyl went up. it was that year I started thinking that whilst science and technology are of course good things; we should consider the human aspects of them…

I was barely old enough to know what a space shuttle was then lol, but I’ve seen footage of it. True disaster. At least when your in an accident like that you die instantly. I know that won’t bring comfort to anyone but I’d be happier if it was me.
November 1, 2014 at 3:26 pm

#831491
1

tryptameanie

@tryptameanie

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Richard Branson has written a blog post about the Disaster which is here: Support for Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites – Virgin.com

This new fuel sounds interesting: New Fuel To Boost SpaceShipTwo | Space content from Aviation Week
I’d heard of solid rocket boosters but never considered how they worked. I sort of thought they were, literally, solid which never made much sense to me (no, I’m not a rocket scientist) so finding out it’s more of a powder with a solid fuel instead of liquid, and an oxidizer made a bit more sense.
People have speculated that they used this new fuel to improve ride quality but if I was sitting in a vehicle with engines like those I wouldn’t expect to be able to sip champagne during the flight or whatever they want a comfy ride for. If I was in a vehicle that was gonna ride at the edge of the atmosphere or even beyond with rockets that size I’d want it to fucking thunder and rattle and seriously excite me, sort of like when you get on a roller coaster.

Haven’t had chance to read this yet but it’s a specification of the shuttle: http://science.howstuffworks.com/spaceshiptwo3.htm
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