[ExI] minor setback

[Keith Henson]

The Skylon was able to abort right up to takeoff speed. The high speed
and high mass meant it took a lot of runway to stop.  Brakes were a
big problem; they proposed cooling them with a ton of water.  Landing
was much less of a problem since the empty vehicle was only about 50
tons.

Keith

On Tue, Sep 30, 2025 at 1:13 PM Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat
<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
> This happens all the time.
>
> In light of this, consider:
>
> 1) A rocket that doesn't deliberately explode - not even using
> controlled explosions, as chemical rockets do.
>
> 2) A horizontal takeoff, horizontal landing vehicle.  True, it has the
> extra mass of wings and landing gear (which mass might have otherwise
> gone to a greater payload fraction), but if the engine malfunctions
> shortly after starting up, it can be shut down without the launch
> vehicle having left the ground.
>
> On Tue, Sep 30, 2025 at 3:27 PM <spike at rainier66.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > Adrian it is difficult to tell from this distance, but one might vaguely suspect there may have been a minor anomaly during testing.  The camera over at Harold's Auto Parts worked in accordance with specification and has provided some possibly-useful failure-analysis data:
> >
> > https://twitter.com/i/status/1972785189702213641
> >
> > One of your competitors, Firefly Aerospace, has learned what you have long known: space flight is hard.  It's even harder if you do ANYTHING wrong.  That biz is unforgiving of fools and unforgiving of even really smart people.
> >
> > spike
> >
>
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