Rocket team lands aviation 'Oscar'

Valley Press ^ | on Wednesday, February 9, 2005 | ALLISON GATLIN

[BenLurkin]

MOJAVE - The team behind SpaceShipOne, the first privately funded, manned space program, has won aviation's top prize, the prestigious Robert J. Collier Trophy. With announcement of the award Monday, SpaceShipOne joins the likes of Orville Wright, Howard Hughes, Chuck Yeager, Scott Crossfield and the crew of Apollo 11.

The Collier Trophy has been awarded each year since 1911 by the National Aeronautic Association "for the greatest achievement in aviation in America …"

"It's the Medal of Honor of aviation; it's aviation's Oscar," said Dick Rutan, who led the nomination effort for SpaceShipOne.

The brainchild of noted aviation designer Burt Rutan and built at his Scaled Composites in Mojave, SpaceShipOne rocketed into the record books with its first spaceflight on June 21. The successful flight to 328,491 feet - considered the edge of space - made pilot Mike Melvill the nation's first commercial civilian astronaut.

That feat was followed by two more suborbital spaceflights over Mojave on Sept. 29 and Oct. 4, reaching a maximum altitude of 367,500 feet. With these flights, SpaceShipOne clinched the $10 million Ansari X Prize for the first privately funded suborbital spaceflights.

The more than $20 million cost of the project was funded entirely by billionaire Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

SpaceShipOne is designed to be air-launched from the White Knight carrier aircraft, then use a rocket engine to boost itself to space. Upon completing an arc, the spacecraft descends to a runway landing, much like a glider.

To re-enter Earth's atmosphere and land, SpaceShipOne employs an innovative means of creating huge amounts of drag early on, so it lands at roughly the same speeds as a general aviation airplane.

To accomplish this, the spacecraft's twin-tail section lifts until it is virtually perpendicular to the wings and body, generating drag and slowing the spacecraft.

This feathering of the tail causes the spacecraft to right itself for landing, similar to a falling shuttlecock. The spacecraft then comes back down level to the Earth, with thermal protection materials preventing the underside of the craft from becoming dangerously hot.

This year's trophy citation specifically mentions Allen, Rutan, pilots Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie, Mission Control Director Doug Shane "and the entire SpaceShipOne team."

This is not the first time Rutan has found his name on the trophy. He, his brother Dick, Jeana Yeager and a team of volunteers were honored in 1986 for the Voyager flight, the first nonstop, nonrefueled flight around the world.

That aircraft, designed by Burt Rutan and piloted by Dick Rutan and Yeager, hangs in the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum. In a nice bit of symmetry, the April 19 Collier award ceremony will be conducted in the museum, beneath the Voyager, Dick Rutan said.

The National Aeronautic Association is a nonprofit organization devoted to promoting understanding of the importance of aviation and spaceflight to the United States. Marking its 100th anniversary in 2005, NAA certifies all national aviation records and all world records set in the United States. It is the oldest national aviation organization in the country.

[hattend]

Good for them.