A Grand Day Out For British Rocketman 122
Instine writes "Salford University, in the UK, is showing an article suggesting that Britain's biggest ever rocket has been unveiled, by an academic planning a space tourism offering by 2013. 'Nova 2 qualifies as the biggest rocket ever created and flown from the UK mainland,' says Steve Bennett, Head of Salford's Space Technology Laboratory
The current offering is said to amount to 20 minutes 'flight' and 3-4 mins floating. I'm not sure how much, but I'd pay for that."
Umm...what's the point..... (Score:1, Informative)
of launching rockets from the UK Mainland?
If you want to get into orbit, you need to launch as close to the equator as possible. That's why we launch from Florida, and the Europeans from Africa.
This is like talking about the biggest rocket to be launched from Vermont. Guess that's not too big, either!
Re:Umm...what's the point..... (Score:4, Informative)
Not necessarily. You can launch from anywhere, it just costs you more to accelerate (slightly less starting speed than at the equator) and possibly more to get into the orbit you want.
Russia's Plesetsk Cosmodrome is further north than most of the UK and they certainly launch lots of stuff from there - though they prefer Baikonur, its politically more difficult....
Re:Obligatory Nick Park Comment (Score:3, Informative)
More importantly, on the way up they forgot the parking brake, not to mention the crackers. If you have not seen the show, it is a beautiful thing to watch.
Comma Police (Score:1, Informative)
This is the third or fourth summary today with an absolute disregard for the usage of the comma and/or proper grammar. That is all.
Re:Umm...what's the point..... (Score:3, Informative)
Cost of the trip (Score:1, Informative)
Original post opined "I'm not sure how much, but I'd pay for that."
From the Starchaser website (http://www.starchaser.co.uk):
"The price of a sub-orbital spaceflight aboard a Starchaser vehicle is currently expected to be £98,000."
(i.e. about $193k)
Biggest British Launch (Score:4, Informative)
Nova 2 qualifies as the biggest rocket ever created and flown from the UK mainland
It's because Britain used to have a rocket program in the 50s and 60s. All the launches of the large rockets were done from Woomera [wikipedia.org] in the Australian outback. The biggest of these was Blue Streak [wikipedia.org] developed as an ICBM. There are some pictures here [spaceuk.org]
Re:I thought... (Score:2, Informative)
But, being British, we're happier working in sheds and old WWII hangers with bits of old bathtub and wire. If our government tried to run a manned space program today, it would be the biggest waste of space, time and money in all human history.
Here he comes again ... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Superhuman children? (Score:2, Informative)
It seems none of the mods has heard "Rocket Man" from Elton John... awesome post in response to the "scientific" analysis of chucking kids out the back of a rocket. Well done.
Re:Biggest ever? (Score:1, Informative)
Look up the Sea Dragon. It could carry the whole zoo.
Re:Starchaser (Score:2, Informative)
NO, they are emphatically ***NOT*** the same people.
The Reliant Robin Space Shuttle was built by the UK Rocketmen, led by Damian Hall. Both groups are based near Manchester, UK Rocketmen in Stalybridge, Starchaser near Salford, but that's the only significant link.
I know this, because I spent a week in France last year getting drunk with Damian and a bunch of other miscellaneous rocketry nutters (including ex-Starchaser folks). Great fun :)
Re:Eccentrics? (Score:3, Informative)
Yet another reason the wife and I would love to move there
Be prepared to be surveilled a lot, especially if you live near London. Don't try and speed, there are speed cameras everywhere. You have to pay for a TV licence to watch broadcast TV, put up with a very socialist authoritarian government... and those gun thingies you Slashdotters are always on about? Seriously illegal for virtually anyone to own over here. Carrying a knife in the street may also lead to a 4 year prison sentence.
Re:Well.. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Eccentrics? (Score:2, Informative)
You are walking down a public street and someone has you on CCTV. Wow, 1984 or what?
Well, the cameras are mostly in 30 mph zones where you shouldn't really be speeding anyway, plus they are clearly marked and it's easy to download their locations for the most part.
Yes, but you get watchable TV
the current government is not socialist by any non-American definition, somewhat authoritarian granted.
Big deal, we also get relatively few gun murders and the main gun owning population of farmers with shotguns has remained pretty much the same.
So? Don't carry a weapon around with you then. In Britain, going around tooled up has always left you liable for a murder charge if you ever use the weapon and kill someone in self defence, this goes for baseball bats, tyre levers or whatever.