Perspective

[kiwistiller]

So, I was celebrating finally making some decent beer, and was feeling pretty proud of myself. Then I came across this.

These fuckers are going to be the first amatures to put a human into suborbital space. They build rockets in a shed in a disused shipyard. And get this - they've build a mobile launch platform that they'll tow with the submarine they knocked up last year those crazy danes sure know how to make your accomplishments feel insignificant


Interesting stuff on pages 1, 4, 9, 11, 13, 15, 16 of that first link. They're launching with a test dummy as the pilot in 8 days.

[rad14701]

Lick your wounded pride, kiwistiller, and gimme me a bite of that shit sandwich you're choking on... It's all relative... Bet they can't get good grain conversion or hit 95%+ azeotrope...

[kiwistiller]

Maybe when they get around to something orbital they can try out vaccum distillation in space, though

[Kentucky shinner]

damn they took a beer keg and some copper to whole new freaking level....

[cob]

kiwi. burt rutan already put people in space 10/4/04 with space ship one. they won the 10 million dollar ansari x prize and they only spent 100 million to do it. the strangest part of this story is that they did it with a PLASTIC airplane. cob

[kiwistiller]

Think that one was private, but not amature, cob. awesome though he was, he was a bonafide aerospace engineer with a aviation company behind him. These guys are volunteers doing it for the hell of it, which I think is pretty amazing.

[cob]

Think that one was private, but not amature, cob. awesome though he was, he was a bonafide aerospace engineer with a aviation company behind him. These guys are volunteers doing it for the hell of it, which I think is pretty amazing.

all true kiwi, I didn't take into account the true meaning and spirit of amature. despite the magnitude of rutan and scaled composites accomplishment my favorite part of the space ship one story is that they spent 100 million dollars of paul allen's money. to see true amatures spit a human 500,000 feet into the sky will be something to behold. the correction is appreciated. cob

[kiwistiller]

Spending Paul Allen's money is a good idea, indeed

[rednose]

Hmm, this (one of their photos) looks like a keg still where someone forgot to drill the bok's vent hole.

[blanikdog]

Nice welding.

[rad14701]

Looks like a 1/2 keg Bok turned pulse jet to me, rednose...

[ScottishBoy]

Hey! Nobody told me you could have fun AND make money!
What the F%^$%$?