To: Spktyr
I got to see a DC-X flight, the one where a ground ignition of vented hydrogen gas blew a chunk of the DC-X off, yet it continued flying and did an emergency landing on unprepared Gypsum ground. Once again, Pete Conrad showed nerves of steel, piloting the DC-X in an off-nominal situation.
Blame Clintoon and his cronies for sabotaging DC-X and other technology that came out of the SDIO/BMDIO organization.
But Rotary Rocket's problems were their own making. They spent their money on building a fancy hanger, instead of flight hardware. The Rotary Rocket legacy lives on with Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites and XCOR.
17 posted on
04/18/2005 11:11:52 PM PDT by
anymouse
To: anymouse
Amen to that.
Rotary Rocket might have gone down the tubes all by themselves, eventually, but their demise was *greatly* hastened and assured by the hack job NASA did on them with the press. The situation was still very salvagable until that point.
18 posted on
04/18/2005 11:15:41 PM PDT by
Spktyr
(Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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