LOCAL FIRM HELPS BUILD NEW-DESIGN SPACECRAFT.Byline: Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. Construction has begun on a private reusable spacecraft designed to carry a single satellite into space and be launched again within a day. The Roton rocket, with a pilot and flight engineer aboard, would use a kerosene-oxygen mixture to reach orbit instead of costlier liquid hydrogen Liquid hydrogen is the liquid state of the element hydrogen. It is a common liquid rocket fuel for rocket applications. In the aerospace industry, its name is often abbreviated to LH2 or LH2. . It would return to Earth cushioned by helicopterlike blades that retract TO RETRACT. To withdraw a proposition or offer before it has been accepted. 2. This the party making it has a right to do is long as it has not been accepted; for no principle of law or equity can, under these circumstances, require him to persevere in it. during launch. Construction of the kerosene kerosene or kerosine, colorless, thin mineral oil whose density is between 0.75 and 0.85 grams per cubic centimeter. A mixture of hydrocarbons, it is commonly obtained in the fractional distillation of petroleum as the portion boiling off fuel tank began last week at Scaled Composites Scaled Composites (often abbreviated as Scaled), formerly the Rutan Aircraft Factory, is located at the Mojave Spaceport, Mojave, California, United States and is headed by aircraft designer Burt Rutan. Inc., the company of aerospace guru Burt Rutan. The main section of the craft will be built by San Francisco-based Rotary Rocket Co., which is constructing a 4.5-acre, multimillion-dollar rocket complex at the Mojave airport. The vehicle, which weighs about 400,000 pounds - about half the weight of a jumbo jet - will carry a 7,000-pound payload and will travel at more than 25 times the speed of sound, or 17,000 mph. Roton's design calls for using kerosene as the main fuel because it is more readily available and cheaper than hydrogen, costing about a tenth as much per pound, said Geoffrey Hughes, a Rotary Rocket Co. spokesman. ``Coca-Cola is more expensive,'' he joked. Standing 64 feet high and 22 feet wide, the vertical rocket initially will be used to place telecommunications satellites in low Earth orbit (communications) low earth orbit - (LEO) The kind of orbit used by communications satellites that will offer high bandwidth for video on demand, television, and Internet communications. , one at a time. Satellite customers will pay about $7 million per flight, Hughes estimated, compared with the current $50 million average for satellite launches and $500 million to fly a space shuttle. The Roton is one of several private and government efforts under way to build cheap, reusable spacecraft to replace the costly space shuttle. |
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