In a joint ceremony with Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California, on Friday, Nasa revealed the X-59, an experimental aircraft that is expected to fly at 1.4 times the speed of sound – or 925mph (1,488 km/h).

The aircraft, which stands at 99.7ft (30.4 metres) long and 29.5ft wide, has a thin, tapered nose that comprises nearly a third of the aircraft’s full length – a feature designed to disperse shock waves that would typically surround supersonic aircraft and result in sonic booms.

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[–] GBU_28@lemm.ee 38 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Huh? NASA is providing thought leadership to expand the possibilities of human travel, but has no interest in running a commercial airline.

Many technologies you use every day started as NASA research

[–] awwwyissss@lemm.ee -3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Why are tax dollars going to something that will only benefit a small percentage of people and will cause relatively bad environmental damage.

[–] GBU_28@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Are you aware what NASA stands for?

I personally am happy some of my tax dollars go towards advancing science.

The reason we have issues in society...homeless people, lack of universal healthcare, etc is not because we find NASA, it's via mismanagement of the funds we have, and bad politics, etc. None of which are NASAs fault or purpose.

NASA does a huge amount of environmental research as well. But part of their team focuses on experimental flight, and this is a product of that.

[–] awwwyissss@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

I'm happy to fund science too, but this isn't the time to develop even more fuel-intensive commercial travel options.