** The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond **

Nice, so what's their next step after this. I don't see the link between this rocket and the massive one person command modual they're making.
 
Glaucus said:
Nice, so what's their next step after this. I don't see the link between this rocket and the massive one person command modual they're making.
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After this (this year) they should, allowing for further complications, be doing the pad abort they've been working towards, another SMARAGD launch with a planned apogee of 60km as opposed to 20km for this one then two SAPPHIRE launches, which will test the active guidance system they've been working on.

It seems to me that SMARAGD is a test of how well their equipment works at high altitude, if they'll be able to track accurately at those speeds and heights and possibly most importantly if they can pull off a successful recovery of the payload. I haven't seen any plans for a rocket that could take Tycho Deep Space to the Kármán line yet. Seems all these tests are trying to figure out what that rocket could practically consist of. Can it have staging? Can it have liquid engines? Can it have active guidance? Do we want all of these? What's the most effective way of combining everything we can do into what we want to make?
 
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