Idaho Skies Transcript for May 7th and 8th

PAUL
Welcome to Idaho Skies for May 7th and 8th. We’re your hosts, Paul…

RACHEL
…and Rachel.

PAUL
Let’s talk about Theodore von Karman and Virgin Galactic’s SpaceshipTwo today.

RACHEL
That sounds like an odd combination, since the first is an aerospace engineer and the second is a passenger-carrying spaceship.

PAUL
Sure, but von Karman died 55 years ago on the 7th and SpaceShipTwo successfully fired its rocket engine just last month.

RACHEL
Von Karman was Hungarian and he immigrated to the US in 1930 to escape the rise of fascism.

PAUL
While working at Cal Tech, he founded the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1946.

RACHEL
His work lead to the understanding of supersonic and hypersonic airflow.

PAUL
How air flows over wings at supersonic speeds is critical to the design of SpaceShipTwo.

RACHEL
Von Karman understood that as airplanes flew at higher altitudes, they needed to fly faster to remain aloft.

PAUL
That’s because the air density becomes less the higher an airplane flies and it’s the mass of air flowing over a wing that generates lift.

RACHEL
He determined that at an altitude 100 kilometers, an airplane would have to fly at a speed of 5 miles per second to stay aloft.

PAUL
Which is also orbital velocity.

RACHEL
That means technically, an airplane can’t aerodynamically fly at an altitude of 100 kilometers.

PAUL
That’s right; an airplane must astrodynamically orbit the Earth instead.

RACHEL
That’s why an altitude of 100 kilometers, 62 miles, or 328,000 feet is consisted the boundary for outer space.

PAUL
And in his honor, we call this altitude the von Karman line.

RACHEL
Which is the altitude that SpaceShipTwo is designed to carry its passengers.

PAUL
Meaning, you’ll become an astronaut once you’ve flown on SpaceShipTwo.

RACHEL
That’s Idaho Skies for the 7th and 8th of May.

PAUL
Be sure to follow us on Twitter @IdahoSkies for this week’s event reminders and sky maps.

For Idaho Skies this is Paul…

RACHEL
…and Rachel.

PAUL
Dark skies and bright stars.