James White wrote:
> 
> >Rand Simberg
> > Sorry, hate to break it to you, but earth orbit is in space.
> 
> Are you really serious or is that tiny semantic quibble the most you could
> understand--or not.


   So, when Vostok-1 made one orbit of Earth, the Soviets were wrong to
say Yuri Gargarin was the first man in space? Trust me, it was more than
semantics at the time.

   Hell, we call Al Shepard the first American in space, and that was
suborbital, albeit reaching what would later be orbital altitudes. (And
later always specifying that Glenn was the first American to *orbit*
Earth. The only Soviet suborbital flight was quite unintentional, and
they hardly count it.)

   At the other extreme, stationary satcoms (or the Moon, for that
matter) are in 'Earth orbit,' too....


-- 

   You know what to remove, to reply....