Message posted by Peter Merlin (Member since 11/13/2003) on January 07, 2022 at 6:44:57 PST:
That's some beautiful video footage of the second flight. I was there for the first flight, when one of the main gear (borrowed from the X-34) didn't come down. Immediately after touchdown, the vehicle departed the runway and rolled over and over. The sound was brutal, like a boat coming off a trailer on the highway. The air-data boom snapped and one of the tail fins was badly damaged. A lot of material was stripped away from the outer surface but it was just foam used to simulate the thermal protection system.
In Reply to: Space plane (OT ?) posted by Mark on January 06, 2022 at 19:11:47 PST:
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