Image of the Day
(http://bruce.org.uk/images/dragonliftoff.jpg)
While a Dragon lifts off to deliver supplies onboard the first commercial spacecraft to supply ISS and then lands in the sea very close to it's target area looking the worse for wear, the first western astronaut to orbit Earth riding his Mercury 'spam in a can' spacecraft named "Friendship 7", John Glenn receives a much earned and long overdue Medal of Freedom from his President.
(http://bruce.org.uk/images/dragonawash.jpg)
(http://bruce.org.uk/images/dragon.jpg)
On February 20, 1962, Glenn piloted the Mercury-Atlas 6 "Friendship 7" spacecraft on the first manned orbital mission of the United States. "Launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, he completed a successful 3 orbit mission around the earth, reaching a maximum altitude of 162 miles. Glenn's "Friendship 7" Mercury spacecraft landed approximately 800 miles southeast of KSC in the vicinity of Grand Turk Island. Mission duration from launch to impact was 4 hours, 55 minutes, and 23 seconds.
During his World War II service, he flew 59 combat missions. After the war, he was a member of Marine Fighter Squadron 218 on the North China patrol and served on Guam. From June 1948 to December 1950 Glenn was an instructor in advanced flight training at Corpus Christi, Texas. He then attended Amphibious Warfare Training at Quantico, Virginia. In Korea he flew 63 missions with Marine Fighter Squadron 311. As an exchange pilot with the Air Force Glenn flew 27 missions in the in F-86 Sabrejet. In the last nine days of fighting in Korea Glenn downed three MIG's in combat along the Yalu River.
After Korea, Glenn attended Test Pilot School at the Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent River, Maryland. After graduation, he was project officer on a number of aircraft. He was assigned to the Fighter Design Branch of the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics (now Bureau of Naval Weapons) in Washington from November 1956 to April 1959, during which time he also attended the University of Maryland.
In July 1957, while project officer of the F8U Crusader, he set a transcontinental speed record from Los Angeles to New York, spanning the country in 3 hours and 23 minutes. This was the first transcontinental flight to average supersonic speed. Glenn has nearly 9,000 hours of flying time, with approximately 3,000 hours in jet aircraft.
Glenn was assigned to the NASA Space Task Group at Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, in April 1959 after his selection as a Project Mercury Astronaut. The Space Task Group was moved to Houston and became part of the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center in 1962. Glenn flew on Mercury-6 (February 20, 1962) and STS-95 (October 29 to November 7, 1998), and has logged over 218 hours in space. Prior to his first flight, Glenn had served as backup pilot for Astronauts Shepard and Grissom. When astronauts were given special assignments to ensure pilot input into the design and development of spacecraft, Glenn specialized in cockpit layout and control functioning, including some of the early designs for the Apollo Project. Glenn resigned from the Manned Spacecraft Center on January 16, 1964. He was promoted to the rank of Colonel in October 1964 and retired from the Marine Corps on January 1, 1965. He was a business executive from 1965 until his election to the United States Senate in November 1974. Glenn retired from the U.S. Senate in January 1999"
(http://bruce.org.uk/images/johnglennmedal.jpg)
The mind boggles that in this modern era, we still have to attach modules to bloody great rockets and catapult capsules into space..... one would have thought by now we would be taking off and landing on a runway..... well, almost like the shuttle, but without the boosters to get into space.....
Unfortunately a lot of energy and speed required to break through earth gravity field , and no oxygen that high so no normal jet engine dont do the job .. so rocket engine ,, lethal comination of liquid oxygen etc ,,,
experiments with the piggy back to as high as possibleare being done , release , carrier jet scarpers out of the way and the now smaller rocket ignites and heads off into space
Perhaps I spoke to soon.....
LINK: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/private-aerospace-flying-high-as-dream-chaser-takes-off.php (http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/private-aerospace-flying-high-as-dream-chaser-takes-off.php)