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"I'm strictly an ivory-tower person. I can explain things but I can't do things."
- Isaac Asimov
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| Winged Rocket Shuttle | ||
| A sort of plane that briefly reached space while traveling between points on a planet. |
Ever need to get there in a hurry? This is the way to fly.
| When he weighed in [at Albuquerque] he ran into another new security wrinkle. "Got a camera in that stuff, son? the weightmaster had inquired as he passed over his bags.
"No. Why?" "Because we'll fog your film when we fluoroscope, that's why." Apparently X-ray failed to show any bombs hidden in his underwear; his bags were handed back and he went aboard - the winged-rocket Santa Fe Trail, shuttling between the Southwest and New Chicago. Inside, he fastened his safety belts, snuggled down into the cushions, and waited. At first the noise of the blast-off bothered him more than the pressure. But the noise dopplered away as they passed the speed of sound while the acceleration grew worse; he blacked out. He came to as the ship went into free flight, arching in a high parabola over the plains... [He] listened half-heartedly to the canned description coming out of the loudspeaker of the country over which they were falling. Presently, near Kansas City, the sky turned from black to purple again, the air foils took hold, and the passengers again felt weight as the rocket continued glider fashion on a long, screaming approach to New Chicago. |
| Technovelgy from Between Planets,
by Robert Heinlein. Published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1951 Additional resources -
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Tech news articles related to Between Planets
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Winged Rocket Shuttle-related
news articles:
- Rocketplane For Hawaiian Spaceport?
- SpaceX BFR Lands $41M From USAF
- SpaceX Rocket Quick Reaction Force
| Europa Clipper Plate Carries A Special Message |
| China Wants To Build Mega Space Ships |
| Dream Of Building Your Own Rocket? |
| Used Dragon Cargo Spacecraft Will Fly Again |
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'...the rocket’s landing-arms automatically unfolded.'
'...points and patches of light... sliding all over their faces in a programmed manner that had been designed to foil facial recognition systems.'
'...the combined Wind-Suncatcher, like a spray of tulips mounted fanwise.'
'I went to the control room where the three other men were manipulating their mechanical men.'
'The low-slung monorail car, straddling its single track, bored through the shadows on a slowly rising course.'
'It was a smooth ovoid floating a few inches from the floor...'
'... he thrust in his charging arm to replenish his store of energy.'
'...the terrible Jovian gravity that made each movement an effort.'
