Ron Wanttaja wrote:

Thinking about all the postings I've made on this subject in the past week,
I realize that I've never really spelled out the difficulties involved in
evolving SpaceShipOne into a vehicle capable of orbit. Several of us have
mentioned the difference in the speed required for Monday's sub-orbital vs
an orbital mission, and the problems of re-entry, but those without a space
or physics background may not grasp the impact of some of the factors so
casually thrown about.

This is an attempt to describe some of the engineering problems that must
be faced, and some typical solutions, when evolving a Scaled SpaceShipOne
(SS1) class of sub-orbital homebuilt spacecraft into one capable of at
least one orbit of the Earth.