Post by Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe on Jun 26, 2005 20:14:36 GMT -6
Alternate Shuttle Aces Early Test
A new spacecraft has been successfully dropped off a launch jet into a vertical, midair blastoff position, an important innovation that could simplify future space launches.
Transformational Space, or tSpace, successfully tested its new spacecraft over California's Mojave Desert earlier this week -- dropping a 23 percent scale model of its rocket and crew capsule from a high-altitude jet.
The mockup dropped from the carrier plane into a vertical launch position without the use of wings. Rather than firing a rocket engine, the unmanned craft fell to Earth. But it performed exactly as computer models predicted, proving the viability of a new method for air-launching spacecraft.
The test establishes tSpace as a serious contender in the effort to build a replacement for NASA's aging fleet of space shuttles.
More here: www.wired.com/news/space/0,2697,67876,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1
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I believe we are seeing the last of the Shuttles fly...and that's ok, just as long as we are planning the next generation of space craft.