[Robert A Cook PE]

A later thread quoted a statement form Rutan that they found the cause for each failure and fixed them.

He expects the next flight to be the "1st of 2" required to win the Xprize.

[snopercod]

In the shuttle program, they release jimspheres (high altitude metallic balloons for radar tracking) prior to each launch and check out the upper level winds. The idea is to look for severe wind shear areas and strong winds that would blow them off course.

Hopefully, Rutan will be doing something similar. He would hate it if SS-1 had to land on I-10 in Blythe...