Virgin space plane crashed

[MadMuz]

The virgin space plane crashed in the Mojave desert.... One fatal one survived....A sad week for space efforts http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/31/us...html?hpt=hp_t1

[gyroo]

Yeah Muz,Any death or injury is always awful, but I will never acknowledge that Branson"s Virgin Galactic has anything to do with space in the way that the general public assumes.A very very steep lofting 2600 mph ride to 68 miles altitude does take it 6 miles above the "Karman Line" (which is 62 miles or 100km, where "space" is generally regarded to start), but Branson"s machine then just drops practically straight back down to return to the launch point 10 minutes later. 6 to 8 minutes of microgravity - whoo hoo!All this doesn"t involve anything like the huge horizontal velocities that conventional rockets generate with their intercontinental ballistic trajectories and absolutely nothing like the 17,500 nautical miles per hour generally regarded as being the speed needed for an average low earth orbit.

[MadMuz]

Agree with you on all points Mark, it is always sad to loose a brother (or sister) of flight, be it in any machine or mode (well, maybe not base jumpers) ((Joke... bad one))However, the risk lifts us above the mundane of nannied lives, but sometimes some get bitten unfortunately Yes, again, the "space" question.... I thunk "space" began at 70,000" above the K line? So as far as I believe, 62K" is only marginally touching the threshold (nearly) of space? If they can go to 62,000", why cant they just go to 80 or 100"?

[gyroo]

The Karman line is at 62 miles - not 62,000 feet.62 nautical miles is 100 km altitude which is 376,719 feet, that"s 10 times higher than airliners fly.Bloody high, but barely "space".

[MadMuz]

my bad, but yes, you wouldn"t want to roll down the window and ash your ciggy at that altitude, but like you said, not space as in "the last fronteer"