Private space flight: sucess!

[Brian G Turner]

SpaceShipOne has rocketed into the history books to become the first private manned spacecraft to fly to the edge of space and back. The craft, built by aviation pioneer Burt Rutan, went over space's 100km (62 mile) boundary, said mission control.

It was carried to 50,000ft (15km) by its launcher White Knight at which point it was unleashed. It fired its rockets to continue its trip.

Mr Rutan was on the runway to embrace pilot Mike Melvill on his return.

They paid an emotional tribute to each other after the flight.

"It was a mind-blowing experience - an awesome thing," said Mr Melvill.

"Burt thought of everything to make it work and it all worked exactly as he told us," he added.

Mr Melvill said the view from space was "spectacular", and he was only sad that Mr Rutan, who he described as his "best friend in the whole world", could not have been there too.

A delighted Mr Rutan said it had been an emotional journey.

"The way you guys felt when you saw it touch down, we felt that several times in mission control during the flight," he said.


More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3811881.stm

 

[Morning Star]

Just a quick note, the pilot was a fellow countryman, a South African!

 

[littlemissattitude]

This is probably a compelte irrelevance, but I'd just like to mention that on my way home from Los Angeles today (Saturday), I had breakfast in Mojave, in a restaurant right next to the airport from which SpaceShipOne took off and landed on Monday. Not nearly as good as being there the day it flew. Although if I had been paying attention, I would have planned to travel south on Monday instead of Sunday and made sure I got up really early and taken that route in order to be there; that's what I get for not paying close enough attention.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Just make sure you get the timing right when they fly for the X prize! I want to see you in the background of BBC news when I watch the newscast.

 

[littlemissattitude]

Just make sure you get the timing right when they fly for the X prize! I want to see you in the background of BBC news when I watch the newscast.

I'll certainly do what I can, Brian. I still kick myself that I never made it down there (Edwards AFB is very close to Mojave) to watch a shuttle landing, when they were landing down there a good portion of the time. Although a couple of times a shuttle landing path went close enough to over us that we got the sonic boom when they went over. Thing is, by the time the boom reached us, they were already over Edwards and lining up to land.

Funny story about shuttle landings and sonic booms...One of the times we got one here, I was at school standing outside waiting for class to begin. There were quite a few people about (mostly much younger than I), and that sonic boom scared the crap out of them - they'd never heard one before, having grown up after the time when flying at supersonic speeds over land had been mostly forbidden, and didn't know what it was. I had to explain what it was they had heard. When I did, they were incredulous: "You mean the space shuttle just flew over here?"

Personally, I miss sonic booms, being old enough to remember when they weren't all that rare, at least around where I grew up. I imagine a lot of them were the result of test flights originating out at Edwards, which isn't all that far from where I lived then. Now, from what I understand, even most test flights are requred to go out over the ocean before they go supersonic. Environmental concerns, I suppose. Still, I miss them.

 

[littlemissattitude]

Well, I didn't get down their for either flight, but I just thought I'd mention that the X-prize is won! SpaceShipOne flew last week and again today (well, it's still Monday here ), and they'll be getting their ten million dollar check in St. Louis at the beginning of next month.

They really are an ambitious lot. Sir Richard Branson has created a new company, Virgin Galactic and thrown in with Rutan and comany, and tentative plans are to begin offering flights for the public (don't line up yet, a ticket will cost about $200,000) in three years.

The thing that I really love about the whole enterprise is that they're running it out of small airport out in the desert that, before this, has mostly been known as a graveyard for old decommissioned planes. Also, that as SpaceShipOne landed, you could see the cars and trucks going by on the highway in the background. This is not some isolated, out of the way operation that no one could ever find. They're right there in town (Mojave, population about 3,000). I hear that they've taken to calling the airport "Mojave Spaceport". Which, I guess, it is now.

I also think it's pretty neat that they achieved the prize on the anniversary of the space age, as Oct. 4 (in 1957) is the date of the launch of Sputnik I.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Yep - history is made, and it didn't even make the BBC 10 o'clock news last night.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Indeed. the age of commercial space travel has finally arrived. Baby steps, but it's started.

 

[littlemissattitude]

Yep - history is made, and it didn't even make the BBC 10 o'clock news last night.

The networks here have been covering the story, but not to any large extent. The Discovery Channel, though, has done a great documentary, three hours in all, covering the development of the project and the two X-prize flights. It's a must-see, especially as we get to see the human side of the people involved, and not just the technology. These are people who are really excited about what they are doing.

A bit of trivia: Did you know that Mike Melville, the pilot who flew the pre-prize test-flight in June and the first X-prize flight, is not even a high-school graduate. Which just proves that you don't need degrees out the you-know-what to do exciting and valuable things.

Additionally, our local press has been giving this quite a bit of space, partly because it is taking place so close (about 2 and a half hours drive away from here), and partly because Burt Rutan is, as I've mentioned here before, a local boy, having grown up in Dinuba, which is about three towns over from here. Our local press will pick up anything and run with it if they can find a local angle.

A second bit of trivia, especially for you music fans: Among the celebrities who were on hand to witness the second X-prize flight was Gene Simmons (yeah, yeah, KISS and all that), who seems to be very enthusiastic about the whole thing. I picked up this bit of info the other day on the way back from L.A. We took the route that goes through Mojave and stopped at the local McDonald's for a bite to eat. They had the articles about the flight from their local newspaper taped up on the wall, and Simmons's name was mentioned prominently - perhaps because he seems a bit of an unlikely space enthusiast? At least, I would never have guessed.