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Comment by xae342 | Hacker News Reader

Cool project, but I always find it amusing when the word “suborbital” is used since it’s sort of a fancy way to say normal or not space. Reminds me this Feynman story:

> Or his questioning of space shuttle engineers: ''They kept referring to the problem by some complicated name - a 'pressure-induced vorticity oscillatory wa-wa,' or something. I said, 'Oh, you mean a whistle!' 'Yes,' they said; 'it exhibits the characteristics of a whistle.' ''

http://movies2.nytimes.com/books/97/09/21/reviews/feynman-do...

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I find the term is apt here, because 'space' is roughly defined as anything beyond 100km from Earth's surface (which they're aiming for). But reaching space is vastly easier than reaching orbit, which requires reaching a speed of about 28000km/h or 17000 mph, which they're definitely not aiming for!

That makes sense, I think I still think of an object reaching space as it can then stay there, vs just a peekaboo. :)

Suborbital denotes trajectories that do leave the atmosphere, but never complete a full orbit. Even though they have not yet achieved that yet, it seems appropriate name imho. And eventually they'll have to change their name to Copenhagen Orbitals I guess ;-)

They also seem to be taking some liberties when using the term "manned". But yeah, cool project.

Hmm? The goal is to stick a person at the top of it. That's pretty much the definition of manned as far as I'm aware.

"Copenhagen Suborbitals is the world’s only manned, amateur space program."

The way this is phrased, it sounds like they've already achieved it, and I feel like that's a little bit intentional. They could have easily called it an "amateur manned space program", which would have lessened the ambiguity.

They are writing in a second (or third+) language.

People learning English have to learn adjective order — it's a big, red bus; not a red, big bus – which could have contributed.

https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/commas-w...

I'm pretty sure it is "big red bus"[0] and not "big, red bus" unless you're using the comma for emphasis? Either way, as you say, it can't be "red, big bus" nor can it be "red big bus" because these adjectives are cumulative, not coordinating.

[0] https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/commas-w...

[1] https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/abo...

I think that comma was correct. Try saying it (the whole sentence I mean, not just "big red bus". He wasn't an adjective phrase describing the bus but an example of a list of adjectives that could form an adjective phrase. You instinctively put pauses between "big" and "red" because you are talking about it as a list. When you are talking about lists you put commas between the elements, and when you take pauses you put commas. So there are at least two reasons why a comma belongs there even though when using adjectives naturally you don't put a comma.

Writing it that way makes it sound like they've already achieved the goal, that they're already putting humans into space.

Like, if just having it as a goal is sufficient, well heck, I could step onto my lawn tomorrow and declare my household a manned amateur space program.

Which would be just fine and acceptable, as long as you declared feasible plans for removing your entire lot from the ground and off to space :)

He doesn't need to move the lot to space. Just use it to move a human to space...

Either way I don't imagine his neighbors will be happy.

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