To: true_blue_texican
His "space" achievement is comparable to the first Mercury flight...not Apollo. Mercury funding was not that great and the government had not yet fully committed to the project. Even compared to Gemini, Mercury was extremely primitive and cheap.
To: CWOJackson
Primitive, yes; but I'm certain not anywhere near on the cheap as SpaceShip One.
47 posted on
05/04/2006 8:48:46 PM PDT by
true_blue_texican
(grateful texan! slightly wasted, tonight)
To: CWOJackson
Mercury funding was not that great and the government had not yet fully committed to the project. I guess 10+ years and Billions of dollars spent on military missile development didn't give the Mercury guys much of a head start?
SS1 was multiples of factors of safety better than Mercury. NASA calculated that Al Shepard had about a 50/50 chance of surviving the launch. Rutan built in many more graceful failure modes into SS1 than any NASA vehicles have ever had.
69 posted on
05/04/2006 10:57:48 PM PDT by
anymouse
To: CWOJackson
A ballistic rocket with a pod on top versus a controllable AIRCRAFT FLOWN by a pilot! Sounds the same to me!! (NOT)
81 posted on
05/05/2006 11:39:28 AM PDT by
BillM
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