Space Transportation System (STS)

[Quantum12]

I miss you…The energy of release, your ways of exit from the Earth. The fire you left behind in the sky. 

The thunder you created, windows you shattered, your ability to crush the speed of sound. 

I miss the way you smell after burning through the atmosphere. The people you have launched, the people you have lost. You changed everything.

You launched like a rocket and returned home as a beautiful glider, a glider of fire. The space station misses you. The quirks you gave us. 

You felt like a rough train ride at launch. The G’s took our breath away. Each launch you endured damage. Now we launch a stick to space. 

We love and miss you STS♥️

[IdeomotorPrisoner]

I hear you still have that in the USAF, and then The Space Force. Of course its like piloting an SR71 in 1980, you'll never be able to tell anyone you do it.

But I have read on the conspiracy net it needs about the same as a large fighter jet to take off and about half the distance of the shuttle to stop.

 All you need is a 3 to 1 thrust to weight ratio to cross the Karman Line and 5 to 1 is "recommended" to achieve escape velocity.

For reference an F22 is at about 1.25 and the X15 was 2.07:1.  But X-15 flight 90 and X15 flight 91 both technically reached space by exceeding 100 km.

And you need rockets because jets cant breath in space either, but something along the lines of a Lockheed NF-104A possibly could, which they fittingly use to train NASA astronauts for rocket preparedness.  Take both rocket and jet engine and put them on the lightest reusable airframe possible for stable flight in both stages and there you go. If I was doing that I'd use a molded fuselage wing design, you know, a fucking delta shaped flying triangle, it gives you more room to lay out the different propulsion systems. 

And that's what kinda pisses me off about government and secrecy. While it's an engineering nightmare to design a 104A that can go into space, it's not impossible. And should have been a milestone reached 40 years ago. It's exactly like being gaslit about human aeronautical achievement for national security reasons. Au•ro•ra is like The Forever Blackbird.

There's nothing but funding preventing a FLEET of stratosphere interceptors that can live all day around the Karman line and beyond.

Carbon fiber + powerful turbojet to get to around 75,000 feet, and then a rocket with enough for about 5 to 7 minutes of burn for the escape and rest of the flight. The rocket fuel would be limited. 

And I know there's something, because you only see "satellites" when they can reflect sunlight, and 2 hours before dawn they need to be at or above 175 km to do that. And satellites don't maneuver into a V formation and flare brighter as they catch up.

Secrecy can't stop the glare of the sun, curved surface of earth, and lucky skywatchers. 

Look for them towards the sky about two hours before dawn moving West to East. You might catch them. At certain reflective windows they appear like satellites only slightly faster. 

So while it's cool to feel wistful over the lost STS program that was probably obsolete some time in the early 80s. Well before The Reagan Whitehouse blew one of them up trying to launch it at 36° F for a publicity stunt.

[Quantum12]

@IdeomotorPrisoner

Thank you for adding this!