Another Commercial Space disaster, this one manned

[d@rk51d3]

Never too soon for Bieber.

[razark]

Sad, but it's not unexpected. Flight testing has never been and never will be risk free.

I just hope that this week's incidents won't put to big a drag on commercial space programs.

[ikalugin]

I guess suborbital flight still counts as space flight.

[Betonov]

Originally Posted by ikalugin

I guess suborbital flight still counts as space flight.

It's a gradual process.
Gone are the times when America and Russia built a huge single use rocket and blasted things directly into space.
Virgin Galactic is developing a ''space plane'' that can fly up there, not ride a booster rocket like the shuttle. To eventually move things into orbit with half the fuel of a shuttle or Soyuz needed.

[ikalugin]

I think that you still need to reach orbit in order to deliver anything there.

Meaning that the current space plane by Virgin has very little value apart from getting tourists into "space".

That said, maybe some one will make a working space plane, there were many projects (including ones by USSR/Russia) but so far all of them failed.

Example:

[Stealhead]

Originally Posted by ikalugin

I think that you still need to reach orbit in order to deliver anything there.

Meaning that the current space plane by Virgin has very little value apart from getting tourists into "space".

That said, maybe some one will make a working space plane, there were many projects (including ones by USSR/Russia) but so far all of them failed.

Example:

The US Air Force and NASA also experimented with such concepts during the early days of the space race. The original concept was for a spy type platform that would fly a "skip" pattern later they had the idea also to put nuclear bombs on them. Of course all this never went beyond the conceptual stage.

A Wikipedia page on the program.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-20_Dyna-Soar

I had not heard of it until reading a book on the development of the Space Shuttle which can to some extent at least trace it linage to this concept. Of course it was a German scientist who first had the idea the goal to make a bomber that could reach the US again of course it never went past the paper stage.

Of course this concept is workable in theory and I can see why it is popular again as it is a cheaper alternative.I think the primary issue as you said is that the craft must enter actual orbit to deliver something else in orbit and I doubt this concept can achieve that without costing the as or more than a more traditional method.

[Cybermat47]

Originally Posted by d@rk51d3

Never too soon for Bieber.

Fair enough