On Sep 15, 2007, at 2:49 AM, Eric H. Christensen wrote:
Well does that mean that if we launch a satellite with an engine of some kind that it keeps it from being a satellite? All geo-sync satellites have some kind of thruster onboard to keep them in that orbit or to move them to a new orbit. I don't think the ISS can be taken out of orbit but it definitely changes its orbit by control.
Plenty of satellites have thrusters or other means of exerting force to move in their orbits.
Ask the commercial geosync satellite folks if they carry station- keeping propellant, and what they do with the birds when they run out of it.
Oh and it definitely *could* be taken out of orbit. SkyLab was. Mir was. :-)
It'd fly really well without wings... for a short time. And a fairly predictable value of "short".
Maybe they could call it an airplane THEN, one on its way to its one and only (hopefully) unmanned crash landing.
:-)
If they do call it an airplane, it'll need a ferry permit for the flight, an Airworthiness Certificate or waiver, a Pilot's operating handbook with written limitations including stall speeds and other important items, and a proper weight and balance done before it even meets the bare documentation requirements.
Depending on airspace being flown through, it may need a working Transponder, not to mention numerous Supplemental Type Certificates for all those modifications it's had done to it on-orbit!
And then it doesn't have the necessary equipment on board for legal VFR flight, let alone IFR flight. (GRIN) We'll start with shipping them up an altimeter and a magnetic compass so they don't get lost on the way down...
LOL! What a joke. Airplane my eye.
-- Nate Duehr, WY0X nate@natetech.com