Posted on 05/15/2004 12:14:40 PM PDT by UnklGene
Plane Flies to Edge of Space -
By Irene Mona Klotz, Discovery News
SpaceShipOne on a Test Run
May 14, 2004 — The front-runner in a $10-million race to send the first private crewed vehicle into space Thursday made a test flight that took a solo pilot near the edge of space.
Aspiring astronaut Mike Melvill piloted the SpaceShipOne rocket plane, designed by legendary aircraft designer Burt Rutan, to nearly 41 miles above the planet's surface, nine miles shy of NASA's official designation of space and 21 miles short of the finish line for the X-Prize.
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To win the $10-million prize, a company or organization must fly a vehicle big enough for three to suborbital space — 62 miles — twice within two weeks.
"I hear it was a really successful flight," said Ian Murphy, a spokesman for the St. Louis-based X-Prize Foundation.
Thursday's test was the third powered flight for SpaceShipOne, a creation of Rutan's company Scaled Composites, of Mojave, Calif.
Rutan is best known for designing the Voyager aircraft, which in 1986 became the first vehicle to circle the globe nonstop and without refueling. His brother, Dick Rutan, was the pilot.
With financial backing from Paul Allen, a Microsoft cofounder and billionaire, Burt Rutan has been working on a vehicle to fly even higher. SpaceShipOne already has earned a place in the history books as the first privately developed vehicle to fly faster than the speed of sound, a milestone reached last December.
In April, SpaceShipOne flew faster than Mach 2 and reached an altitude of 105,000 feet. On Thursday, the vehicle set a new altitude record for a private aircraft: 211,400 feet.
"Our goal is to demonstrate that nongovernment manned space flight operations are not only feasible, but can be done at very low costs," Rutan said in a statement.
More than two dozen teams are working to develop reusable suborbital manned spaceships in hopes of opening a new frontier for tourism.
"We look to the future — hopefully within 10 years — when ordinary people, for the cost of a luxury cruise, can experience a rocket flight into the black sky above the Earth's atmosphere, enjoy a few minutes of weightless excitement, then feel the thunderous deceleration of the aerodynamic drag on entry," Rutan said.
SpaceShipOne is launched mid-air following release from a carrier jet called White Knight. During Thursday's test, the rocket ship's motor ignited 10 seconds after the release from White Knight as it soared 46,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean. Additional test flights are expected before the company makes its bid for the X-Prize.
"This flight marks an additional milestone for Paul G. Allen, Burt Rutan and the innovative aerospace design team in their ongoing efforts to complete the first nongovernment manned space flight," the company said in a statement.
I still love the LongEZ and the Voyager! Stop in at Mojave Airport the next time you're in the area.
Go Bert! Go!
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2003 June 27
Explanation: Slung below its equally innovative mothership dubbed White Knight, SpaceShipOne rides above planet Earth, photographed during a recent flight test. SpaceShipOne was designed and built by cutting-edge aeronautical engineer Burt Rutan and his company Scaled Composites to compete for the X Prize. The 10 million dollar X prize is open to private companies and requires the successful launch of a spaceship which carries three people on short sub-orbital flights to an altitude of 100 kilometers -- a scenario similar to the early manned spaceflights of NASA's Mercury Program. Unlike more conventional rocket flights to space, SpaceShipOne will first be carried to an altitude of 50,000 feet by the twin turbojet White Knight and then released before igniting its own hybrid solid fuel rocket engine. After the climb to space, the craft will convert to a stable high drag configuration for re-entry, ultimately landing like a conventional glider at light plane speeds.
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