Xref: utzoo sci.aeronautics:85 sci.space:14323 sci.space.shuttle:3713 Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!cica!gatech!prism!ccsupos From: ccsupos@prism.gatech.EDU (SCHREIBER, O. A.) Newsgroups: sci.aeronautics,sci.space,sci.space.shuttle Subject: Re: X-30, Space Station Strangles NASP Message-ID: <2219@hydra.gatech.EDU> Date: 2 Oct 89 15:43:44 GMT References: <4983@omepd.UUCP> <1989Sep29.164255.28849@utzoo.uucp> <5292@eos.UUCP> <1989Sep30.220055.28004@utzoo.uucp> Reply-To: ccsupos@prism.gatech.EDU (SCHREIBER, O. A.) Followup-To: sci.aeronautics Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology Lines: 20 In article <1989Sep30.220055.28004@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes: >Actually, I was thinking of space launchers in general rather than >hypersonic flight in particular -- I'm actually not convinced that >hypersonic flight is the way to go for cheap spaceflight -- but the Has anybody ever proven that single stage to orbit is possible? I remember an engineer from Aerospatiale who was saying that it was not with the present structural indices possible (weight of fuel/ weight of structure of fuel tank). Perhaps he was not thinking of airbreathing engine configurations. Also, a hypersonic vehicle has to navigate in a narrow velocity-altitude region, between the sustentation barrier and the thermal barrier: too slow and high and it does not climb, too fast and low and it melts. Any opinion? -- Olivier Schreiber (404)894 6147, Office of Computing Services Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332 uucp: ...!{allegra,amd,hplabs,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!prism!ccsupos ARPA: ccsupos@prism.gatech.edu