Friday, December 31, 2010

NASA Angel Links?

NASA is currently working working on a rail launcher that should be familiar to all sf fans and anybody who has seen George Pal's 1951 big screen adaptation of Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer's 1933 novel, When Worlds Collide.



And otaku will recognize the rail launcher from it's more recent use in the Outlaw Star spin-off, Angel Links. In that show they even add a clever innovation in that they first launch an "advanced flying unit" which creates a supersonic shockwave that the ship flies up in.


Skip to the 7:50 mark to see the launch sequence.

Since NASA now has to rent spaceships from taxpayer funded "commercial" rocket makers I suppose it's just a matter of time before the agency will be forced to rent rail launcher time, too.

[via Technovelgy]

3 comments:

Jordan said...

The good news is that SpaceX seems to be performing very well, and maybe between them SpaceX and Virgin will get us back to the Moon anyway, even if the US Government keeps dragging its feet! :)

Jerry Cornelius said...

I hope your right, but I'm not quite as optimistic. And I have a sneaking suspicion that if they do go to the moon it'll only be to turn it into a giant billboard.

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