Alan Shepard reached 115 miles on his flight

[edhopper]

And Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth.
Branson, 55 miles. Bezos, 62 miles.
The X-15 reached higher altitudes in the 60s
These guys barely reached the Thermosphere, let alone the Exosphere.

Can we even call it Space?



While commercial rockets have their purpose, these were just high altitude joy rides.

[dalton99a]

1. Billionaire sweatshop owner purchases astronaut wings

[Klaralven]

2. You have the altitudes for Branson and Bezos mixed up

[edhopper]

5. Thanks for catching that,

corrected.

[brooklynite]

3. Yes, we can...

...because we have.

International law states that outer space shall be free for exploration and use by all, but there is no definitive law stating where national air space actually ends and outer space begins. This leaves the door open for a variety of interpretations.

A common definition of space is known as the Kármán Line, an imaginary boundary 100 kilometers (62 miles) above mean sea level. In theory, once this 100 km line is crossed, the atmosphere becomes too thin to provide enough lift for conventional aircraft to maintain flight. At this altitude, a conventional plane would need to reach orbital velocity or risk falling back to Earth.

https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/content/where-space

[edhopper]

6. Bezos might have just reached

100 km. But did not go past the Karman Line.

[Klaralven]

10. 7 km above the Karman Line at 66.517 miles.

The capsule reached a maximum altitude of around 107km (351,210ft) before starting its descent, parachuting down to a soft touchdown in the desert.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57849364

[edhopper]

13. And the X-15

flew higher 50 years ago.

It's just not very spacey.

[Politicub]

4. I betcha lucky Lindy Never flew so high,

'Cause in the stratosphere
How could he lend an ear
To all that jazz.

DU is quite the space salon today, so I thought we could use a musical interlude as part of the discussion.

[lagomorph777]

7. Suborbital space: the semifinal frontier.

Last edited Tue Jul 20, 2021, 12:36 PM - Edit history (1)

These are the voyages of the space ship Blue Job.
Its five minute mission: to boldly go where hundreds of men have gone before.

[Carlitos Brigante]

8. .

.

[randr]

9. No credit without full orbit and pictures to prove it

[edhopper]

12. I agree

We've had planes that fly this high.

[snowybirdie]

11. I agree

The problem is many of us remember the heady days of NASA flights in the 60s & 70s. Very exciting and awesome. Nothing really big or exciting or game changing came of them. We didn't explore new worlds or find new humans. What's being done now has been done 60 years ago.Ho hum!

[tavernier]

14. Kind of what I thought.

The 20 year old news casters this morning were delirious with excitement. I just saw a rocket that went up and came right back down. My impression was that they got gypped.

[USALiberal]

15. Lol! Ok! Nt

[edhopper]

16. Thanks for agreeing.