Comments on: SpaceShipTwo flight characteristics

By: Larry J

Larry J — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 14:27:15 +0000

The effect of G loading on the body depends on the direction. If you’re talking about positive Gs (the force is generally from head to foot, as in an inside loop), then sustaining 7Gs is tough. If you’re talking about negative Gs (blood rushes to the head, as in an outside loop), then 7Gs would be unbearable. However, the Gs can be aligned from the front of the body to the back both during powered climb and reentry. G loads in this manner are much more bearable. If the seats are perpendicular to the velocity vector (upright during powered flight, reclined during reentry), then 7Gs shouldn’t be too bad.

By: Peter Shearer

Peter Shearer — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 18:35:06 +0000

I’ve spent the last two years wondering how they can reduce the 5G deceleration for the tourists… now they’re going in at 7G’s??? I did 4g’s in a biplane once… thought I was gonna die. It’s nice that they want to go to a higher altitude (better view, increased curvature of the earth, more time weightless) but I’d like to go to space and can’t afford the $200,000 price tag. Can we get a discount if we only get to 62 miles? SpaceDev is a competitor so it’s not surprising that Scaled cut their ties as soon as SpaceDev was no longer needed. Scaled actually did most of the developement work on the hybrid rocket and retains the design data. They didn’t have the facilities to build their own rocket then, they do now.
Forget about downrange, they should make White Knight2’s cockpit the same size and sell 6 tickets (cheaply) to ride in the mothership and witness the launch from 50,000 feet. I’d pay for that!!! Don’t you think that’d be fun?

By: Almaz

Almaz — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 11:56:38 +0000

Why has the relationship between Scaled Composites and SpaceDev deteriorated? And who is then going to build the rocket engine for SS2?