Ansari X-Prize Launch Live Thread (Update: LANDING SUCCESSFUL!)

09/29/04

[Dead Dog]

Didn't Mo tie up his Donkey and float up to heaven at the spot the Al Aqsa Mosque defiles the Temple Mount....or did they just make that up?

[Robert A Cook PE]

Second qualifier flight certainly.

(Rutan has gotten it to on several previous test flights, including one to "legal" space altitudes....)

[RightWhale]

Not sure about parabolic, but in a central gravitation field it is elliptical or hyperbolic. You can tell the difference by whether your spaceship comes back or not if it doesn't run into something.

[RightWhale]

The ship unexpectedly rolled more than two dozen times before steadying. "I was worried about that because that's not the way it was supposed to be," Dick Rutan said.

Ya think?

[RightWhale]

Anything new on Toutatis? That was supposed to fly by during the Rutan flight and pack enough energy to vaporize, say, France.

[DTA]

>>>>Didn't Mo tie up his Donkey and float up to heaven at the spot the Al Aqsa Mosque defiles the Temple Mount....or did they just make that up?<<<<

"third holiest place" is fraudulent claim, they made it up recently. When Jordanis were running the place, there was a garbage dump across the street from Al Aqsa.

[snopercod]

Coming late to the thread here, but Melville said on Fox that "he may have hit the rudder pedal inadvertently".

The talking heads said the craft "was spinning out of control". Sheesh...

[RightWhale]

Seems he got about 25 snap rolls at the end of powered flight. Do not try this in your SUV.

[snopercod]

Well, not snap rolls. More like aileron rolls.

[Eaker]

Ping to watch at home.

[tophat9000]

The this is the is the second time it a roll the the ship rolled ant the time of the rocket firing ... this was one of the reason the has been the delay from the first flight in to space to this Xprize try they were going to try and fix this issue

[SunkenCiv]

"Bigelow this week announced a new prize of $50 million for the first private group that can build an orbiting, passenger-carrying spacecraft."

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/xprize_success_040929.html

That's it, I'm quittin' my job and heading for the workshop... ;')

[SunkenCiv]

"Bigelow told Aviation Week that not only would America's Space Prize winners secure the $50 million purse, half of which he's putting up himself, but they'd also snag options to service inflatable space habitats under development by Bigelow Aerospace."

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/bigelow_spaceprize_040927.html

[SunkenCiv]

"The Virgin transport, entertainment and communications group has signed an agreement with pioneering aviation designer Burt Rutan to build an aircraft based on Rutan's SpaceShipOne vessel, Branson said."

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/virgin_space_040927.html

A great (and obvious) choice.

[freebilly]

The this is the is the second time it a roll the the ship rolled ant the time of the rocket firing

Mr. Babelfish, I presume...?

[B4Ranch]

Lookie here! spaceshipone.airshowjournal