From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@yahoo.com)
Date: Sun Feb 02 2003 - 14:51:07 MST
--- Lee Corbin <lcorbin@tsoft.com> wrote:
>
> I am still haunted by the point made by an acquaintance
> long ago. He bemoaned the fact that ordinary rocket launches
> into space deliberately fire rockets to keep the 2nd stage
> or 3rd stage (I forget) from going into orbit themselves.
>
> His point was that ordinary rocket journeys into space should
> if possible elevate as much mass as possible into orbit, mass
> that can be re-used to build space stations or other vehicles.
>
> What do you think about that?
Its not quite accurate. What they are doing is firing rockets to make
the booster come down in an unpopulated area (the ocean), rather than
someplace like Africa, India, Asia, or Australia where the risk of
liability lawsuits is astronomically higher. A booster is *technically*
orbiting the center of the earth when it is released, the problem is
that there is some ground in the way of it achieving perigee at a below
sea level altitude... ;)
=====
Mike Lorrey
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
- Gen. John Stark
"Pacifists are Objectively Pro-Fascist." - George Orwell
"Treason doth never Prosper. What is the Reason?
For if it Prosper, none Dare call it Treason..." - Ovid
__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now.
http://mailplus.yahoo.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sun Feb 02 2003 - 21:26:09 MST