LIVE THREAD: Spaceship One Launch

6/20/04

[KevinDavis]

I thought this will be the official live thread of the historic launch of Spaceship One. Since this will happen while I'm at work, I thought I give a live thread an eary start..

[KevinDavis]

I thought I ping the usual suspects!

Space Ping! This is the Space Ping List! Let me know if you want on or off this list!

[Rebelbase]

Since you started the live thread you have to stay up all night to monitor it. We'll be checking on you.

[BenLurkin]

Go baby - Light the Candle!

[Momaw Nadon]

Private Rocket Plane to Launch from Mojave Desert

MOJAVE, Calif. (Reuters) - Media and early onlookers flocked to the California desert on Sunday to witness the historic flight of the world's first privately funded rocket plane beyond Earth's atmosphere.

SpaceShipOne, designed by legendary aerospace designer Burt Rutan and funded by billionaire Paul Allen, will be launched from a larger plane and, after igniting its burners, fly 62 miles into space and back down again, a distance that will officially make test pilot Michael Melvill an astronaut.

"We do want our children to go the planets," said Rutan, the pioneering aerospace engineer who also designed the Voyager aircraft, the first airplane to fly around the world without refueling.

The white rocket plane with its striking nose -- a pointed cone covered with small portholes, was built with more than $20 million in funding by Allen, who co-founded Microsoft Corp.

"Tomorrow we will attempt to add a new page to the aviation books," Allen told more than 300 reporters gathered for the event, "It's incredibly exciting."

If all goes well, Allen and SpaceShipOne's builders are expected to announce their next goal after SpaceShipOne's flight, the Ansari X Prize, which is offering $10 million to the first team that sends three people, or an equivalent weight, on a manned space vehicle 60 miles above the earth and repeats the trip within two weeks.

"I am ready to go, and we are going to win the X Prize," said Melvill, 62, a professional test pilot from South Africa with U.S. citizenship.

In its last test flight in May, SpaceShipOne reached an altitude of 40 miles, or about two-thirds of its goal.

Allen and Rutan's team said its members are confident of success and have invited the general public to the Mojave Airport, about 100 miles north of Los Angeles, to witness Monday's 6:30 a.m. Pacific (9:30 a.m. EDT) launch attempt.

"It should be heavy traffic," said California Highway Patrol officer Joel Martinez, "We're preparing extra personnel for getting people in safely."

The flight itself will last about 85 minutes, including the time it takes for SpaceShipOne to be carried to an altitude of 50,000 feet by a larger aircraft called the White Knight.

After burning its rocket for 80 seconds, SpaceShipOne will spend about three and a half minutes at its peak altitude, during which the test pilot will experience weightlessness and see the black expanse of outer space.

Then the pilot will tilt SpaceShipOne's delta-style wings to slow the vehicle during reentry before it glides back to the Mojave Desert and into history books.

[RightWhale]

This is getting major media attention. There are a number of naysayers of course, and they may be ignored. This is a long ways from circular orbit, but any orbit will do.

[MeekOneGOP]

[KevinDavis]

Here are some pics:

[Ronin]

Kick the tires and light the fires!

Go SPACESHIP ONE!!!

[KevinDavis]

I intend to ignore the naysayers.

[RightWhale]

"I am ready to go, and we are going to win the X Prize," said Melvill, 62

That would be the mysteriously unnamed pilot.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Bump.....

[lainie]

Nothing like an early start! :-)

I live out here and plan to watch from my house. The scanner's all set to record, too.

Ping to BK

[longshadow]

privately funded placemarker

[tet68]

I always liked the shuttle, but you got to admit,
this thing looks like a rocket ship right out of
"Astounding" or one of the other pulp sf mags.

[Bogey78O]

So we have the Russians, the Americans, the Chinese, and now the civvies. Like Star Trek movies let's hope even numbered attempts bear fruit.

[dalereed]

"Nothing like an early start! :-)"

I don't know what the weather is like there right now but the wind can get pretty fierce there.

Planning the flight that early should avoid the real bad winds.

I used to fly in there for lunch occasionally.

[KevinDavis]

It looks like something out of Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers.

[Brett66]

Bump for Burt!