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Comment by perl4ever | Hacker News Reader

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perl4ever·

I'd forgotten about that stuff, but it seems like the bad idea was the prize itself.

I mean, the winner did just enough to get the prize, and stopped, and nothing further ever came of it, right?

Just because of how SpaceX overshadows everything in retrospect.

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No, they're still going at it. Partnered with Virgin to make further iterations of the Spaceship One concept under The Spaceship Company. They're shooting to do private spaceflights under the name Virgin Galactic.

Orbit though?

Sub-orbital. Think getting the craft up to altitude of 100+ km, hang out for a few minutes, and descend back to Earth. SpaceShip One, the prototype inspiring the Virgin Galactic fleet, was capable of reaching speeds of 0.9 km/s. [1] Escape velocity to get into orbit from Earth's surface is 11.2 km/s. [2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceShipOne

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_velocity

Escape velocity is a velocity to escape gravitational field. Orbit velocity is a velocity to orbit a thing inside its gravitational field.

For example, ISS has orbit speed of about 7.7 km/s at 350 km above the ground. Orbit speed "at the surface" of Earth is about 8km/s, I believe.

Thanks for the clarification.

My point, not to be overly disrespectful, is that suborbital flights are so different from what SpaceX has done that they seem like party tricks, not stepping stones.

In the big picture, it's not a huge amount wasted, I was just remarking on it being less significant in retrospect than one might have hoped.

What about it?

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