Design
The design concept is to air launch a three-person piloted spacecraft which climbs to slightly above 100 km (62 mi) altitude using a hybrid rocket motor and then glides to the ground and lands horizontally. Scaled Composites lists the following components of the program:
- launch aircraft (White Knight)
- three-seater human-rated spacecraft (SpaceShipOne)
- hybrid rocket propulsion system
- mobile propulsion test facility
- flight simulator
- inertial-nav flight director
- mobile mission control center
- spacecraft systems
- pilot training program
- flight test program
Read more about this topic: Scaled Composites Tier One
Famous quotes containing the word design:
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life ... for fear that I should get some of his good done to me,—some of its virus mingled with my blood.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The reason American cars don’t sell anymore is that they have forgotten how to design the American Dream. What does it matter if you buy a car today or six months from now, because cars are not beautiful. That’s why the American auto industry is in trouble: no design, no desire.”
—Karl Lagerfeld (b. 1938)