Category Archives: Suborbital

“Space Is Hard” Is The Wrong Answer

Posted on Mon, 2014-11-03 by gravityloss

They say “Space is hard” Orbital Sciences crashed a rocket equipped with two 40 year old engines. Physically that old. They were an interim solution and they were working towards new engines. We don’t know at this point if the … Continue reading →

Posted in Design, engines, Homebuilt, industry, Journalism, RLV:s, Suborbital | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Iso-Haisu Flies to 2348 meters!

Posted on Thu, 2011-03-03 by gravityloss

The Iso-Haisu (big skunk) hybrid rocket just flew, on wednesday second of March 2011. More info on the Haisunäätä pages. Done by members of SATS ry, Suomen Avaruustutkimusseura or SAFF, Sällskap för Astronautisk Forskning i Finland by its Swedish name or Finnish … Continue reading →

Posted in Homebuilt, Motivation, Suborbital, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Various re-entry vehicle shapes in a low speed wind tunnel

Posted on Sun, 2010-11-07 by gravityloss

Or another excuse for testing video embedding again… It seems tumbling is quite common, which is not a nice thig.

Posted in airplane, NASA, RLV:s, Spacecraft, Suborbital | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Why precool but not liquify – Skylon and SABRE

Posted on Fri, 2010-10-29 by gravityloss

Well, I thought maybe I could add some content. Everybody’s heard about the British Hotol follower Skylon and its airbreathing SABRE engines. What’s special about them? My understandin’s based on this excellent document from Reaction Engines explaining why the system … Continue reading →

Posted in airplane, Architecture, Design, Energy, engines, ESA, industry, Launchers, RLV:s, Suborbital, Transportation, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Spaceshiptwo – First Glide

Posted on Mon, 2010-10-11 by gravityloss

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDUVe3a496Y&feature=player_embedded] Watch in high res at youtube. White Knight Two doesn’t look so large span after all. Spaceship Two is pretty wide with its outset elevons and the WK2 outer wings need to have the engines so there’s not much … Continue reading →

Posted in Motivation, RLV:s, Suborbital | Leave a comment

Parawings and Rogallo wings, again

Posted on Thu, 2010-10-07 by gravityloss

Inspired by Michel Van (not Scott Lowther as mentioned earlier) at Secret Projects, who ran into the Gemini inflatable Rogallo wing test videos that are now available (not embeddable so linked only). There are parafoil systems for airdropping stuff, though … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Design, industry, RLV:s, Spacecraft, Suborbital | 2 Comments

The Turn-Boost-Glide-Back approach for first stages

Posted on Sun, 2010-09-26 by gravityloss

In a patent by the famous Barnaby Wainfan. EDIT: corrected the link. This patent was filed in 2006 and granted in 2008.

Posted in airplane, Architecture, Art, Design, engines, industry, Launchers, RLV:s, Suborbital | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

On Pressure Fed Rockets and Scaling

Posted on Sat, 2010-09-18 by gravityloss

Well, scaling seems to be my pet issue. I recently wrote something not entirely well reasoned in a comment at Paul Breed’s. (For some reason Chrome complains about blogrolling.com malware there so continue if you’re sure you’re safe.) So let’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Design, engines, Launchers, RLV:s, Spacecraft, Suborbital, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Iso-Haisu Hybrid First Flight, HD Video

Posted on Sun, 2010-02-14 by gravityloss

EDIT2 Video is online now. END EDIT [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yvc_xCLJimk] (I haven’t worked with the rocket, I just know the people who did this!)

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The Rocket Was Found Today

Posted on Sat, 2010-02-13 by gravityloss

Altitude was 2222 m. Apparently the backup timer shot the drag chute out while the rocket was still ascending. The team said they have video and will upload it later, if asked nicely enough. 🙂 Meanwhile, some launch photos. You … Continue reading →

Posted in Homebuilt, Humor, Models, Motivation, Suborbital | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment