Why Did This Tourist Spaceship BREAK UP? скачать в хорошем качестве

Why Did This Tourist Spaceship BREAK UP?

Over the past two decades, space tourism has gone from a distant dream to an emerging reality, with private companies paving the way for commercialised spaceflight. Among them, is one of the pioneers, Virgin Galactic, who’ve promised suborbital trips for civilian adventurers. The idea of ordinary people able to experience space has become more tangible than ever. But with great innovation comes great risk. The 31st October 2014. The Mojave Desert, California, USA. Virgin Galactic have been conducting multiple test missions to further refine their spacecraft and propulsion system. VSS Enterprise, is the craft about to perform the latest test flight from Mojave Air and Space Port, the first powered flight in nine months, and will consist of flight testing a new, more powerful and stable rocket engine, whose fuel grain is composed of nylon instead of rubber. The flight will be crewed by pilot Peter Siebold and co-pilot Michael Alsbury. They conduct their pre-flight checks, reviewing their flight procedures and safety protocols. VSS Enterprise is a Scaled Composites SpaceShipTwo, a manned Spaceplane, the first built of its kind. Designed for suborbital space tourism, it is a reusable vehicle meant to carry passengers to the edge of space and back to Earth. The craft comprises of a cockpit for a two-pilot configuration, a passenger cabin which can seat up to six, a single hybrid rocket motor, and a twin tail boom, integrated into a feathered re-entry system. To ensure a controlled, stable descent from the edge of space, it works by changing the shape of the spacecraft mid-flight. After reaching peak altitude, the pilots activate the feathering system, which pivots the tail section upward to a 60-degree angle. This reconfiguration increases drag, slowing the spacecraft down in the upper atmosphere, and orientates the vehicle for a stable descent. Once the vehicle reaches the denser air as it loses altitude, the tail returns to its normal position, allowing the spacecraft to glide back to Earth, where it lands like a traditional aircraft. During its flight, it aims to provide several minutes of weightlessness for the passengers before its return. To increase efficiency, and provide a safer ascent; rather than a vertical liftoff like a conventional rocket, the craft is instead carried to an altitude of 50,000 feet by a mothership, a Scaled Composites White Knight Two, a twin fuselage, four engined aircraft designed to carry SpaceShipTwo, where it is released, and will continue under its own power. The two-stage launch system allows SpaceShipTwo to conserve fuel and avoid the stresses of a ground-based rocket launch, making for a smoother ascent before ignition. The ship’s operator is Virgin Galactic, a British-American company specialising in developing commercial spacecraft and providing suborbital flights to space tourists. It was founded in 2004, making it an early player in private spaceflight, alongside others such as SpaceX and Blue Origin. As planned, VSS Enterprise is carried by the White Knight Two mothership to release altitude. After final checks, the spacecraft is released, entering free flight. Moments later, the rocket engine is ignited, propelling the craft forward and into a climb at breathtaking speeds. 11 seconds into the flight, the tail boom—the aerodynamic system meant to stabilize the craft during descent—prematurely unlocks… Extreme aerodynamic forces are applied onto Enterprise, tearing it apart. All photo and video footage is used under fair use law CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Cylinder Four and CGI Snake by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Source: http://chriszabriskie.com/cylinders/ Artist: http://chriszabriskie.com/