Posted on 09/29/2004 5:24:50 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
A pioneering aviation company will attempt to rocket into space on Wednesday in a bid to win the $10 million Ansari X Prize.
The prize will go to the first non-governmental vehicle that can ferry three people to a height of 100 kilometres twice within two weeks. Success in the second flight, currently scheduled for 4 October, would clinch the prize for the Scaled Composites team, based in Mojave, California.
Thousands of spectators are expected to descend on the airport of the small desert town of Mojave, where the flight is scheduled for takeoff at 0647 PDT (1447 BST). A jet plane called White Knight will carry rocket SpaceShipOne slung beneath it to a height of 14,330 metres (47,000 feet).
At about 0750 PDT (1550 BST), the jet will release SpaceShipOne. The rocket will fire its engine for about 90 seconds to shoot above 100 kilometres - the official start of space. Its crew will experience about three minutes of weightlessness and be able to see the curvature of the Earth before descending for about 20 minutes and gliding to a landing around 0830 PDT (1630 BST).
X Prize director Peter Diamandis set up the prize in 1996 in order to spur commercial spaceflight. He was inspired by the $25,000 Orteig Prize set up in 1919 that led to Charles Lindbergh's famed trans-Atlantic flight of 1927.
"Dream is alive"
Now, that vision is turning into a reality. On Monday, airline mogul Richard Branson announced he was licensing SpaceShipOne's technology and that a new company, Virgin Galactic, could begin tourist flights to space in 2007 for about $190,000 per ticket.
That momentum - and a sense of giddy camaraderie - could be felt at Mojave's airport on the eve of the flight. "The dream is alive," said a grinning airport employee.
Dan DeLong, chief engineer for XCOR Aerospace, a Mojave-based company not vying for the X Prize, says Scaled Composites is showing the general public that space tourism is not a flight of fancy.
"It's helping to kill the giggle factor," DeLong said, referring to people's reactions when he tells them he hopes to build a two-person rocket-powered plane to take people into space.
First civilian astronaut
By Tuesday evening, Scaled Composites had still not revealed who would be piloting either White Knight or SpaceShipOne. But several knowledgeable sources said veteran pilot Michael Melvill would probably take the helm.
Melvill became the first civilian astronaut when he flew the rocket above 100 km in June. That flight did not qualify for the X Prize, however, because it did not include two additional people, or their weight equivalent, as winning flights must.
Scaled Composite's team is led by aviation pioneer Burt Rutan, who designed the first airplane to fly non-stop around the world without refuelling in 1986. Funding, estimated at $20 million, is provided by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
Maggie McKee, Mojave
I applaud the company and their success, but I've noticed too many people jumping on the 'NASA is a dinosaur' bandwagon. NASA is still head and shoulders above anything Scaled Composites can think of doing. When a private company goes to the moon, I'll be impressed.
NASA is in the business of exploration.
Private companies are moving in to build a space industry.
Thanks for the LINK!
BTW I came into work early this AM, (CST) and noticed a full moon. I'll bet that the chase plane will be positioned to catch SpaceShipOne so that the Moon will be above when it begins it climb and then below it as it "GULP" reaches for the stars!!!!!!!!!!
I know it's late in my career but I've decided to apply for the Bell Hop job at Bigelow's orbiting motel. Heck, I'd even clean the toilets!
I agree, Racilia. Too much innovation can destroy a company by eating its profits and disconnecting it from its customer focus. The American state often identified new geographic frontiers for Americans to pursue, and then seeded the process of exploiting them with exploration, incentives, and help with the basic infrastructure required to move out into it.
Space in our immediate neighborhood has been studied and probed for some time. We know something about its dangers and rewards. It is time for the government to view business interest in space as a natural follow on to the investment the American people made during the second half of the 20th century.
It's once again time for Americans to settle another frontier and start profiting from it.
I think half of America's problems come from a sense that we have no where to grow. I was crushed to find out that homesteading, even in Alaska, was a think of the past, and had been since 1968.
We're the freest people on the planet. Soon, the planet won't be the only place for us. There will be no earthly limits on where we can go to make a profit, acquire new raw materials, and pursue our investigation of the universe around us. That's the American way, and it's up to us to lead humanity to the stars.
I agree....but I feel that space will never become truly reachable until NASA eventually transitions into a kind of "Space FAA". Space flight and tech still require reasonable regulation, or else near-earth orbit will become unnavigable.
After that, shades of Larry Niven and Allen Steele, the REAL space race will be on.
"I agree....but I feel that space will never become truly reachable until NASA eventually transitions into a kind of "Space FAA""
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm let's see, civilian companies develope a sound (hopefully) process for entry to and exit from space. You now want the government to come in and regulate the process. like the FDA, or the FCC or the FAA? The idea that reasonable regulation is necessary......or reasonable is incorrect. The internet and even current communications make it possible to interface with anyone and everyone involved in ones particular area of endeavour.
No new agency is needed, the old one needs to be scrapped along with the rest of em, and let the market handle the weight!
Caveat emptor,
Top sends.
I respectfully disagree.
I loathe regulation as much as the next guy, but I also want to have a reasonable degree of certainty that the spaceship that I get on has an airframe worthiness certification, and that the flight control surfaces don't have metal fatigue in them. I want to know that the emergency oxygen really IS on board...and that the astronaut flying the bucket of bolts is not going to have an epileptic seizure during reentry.
Sure, companies might be able to self-regulate, and the best ones will....but self-regulation eventually leads to a CBS...and would you like to be on the craft that serves as the object lesson?
Government regulation is ALWAYS a hindrance, but sometimes it is unavoidable. Ever other form of transportation is regulated in America....and I betcha space travel will be no different.
Going to runway now take off soon.
Live thread to November 2, elections.
ME FIRST.
Polling out now.
NASA TV is doing a great job.
Awesome!
Just left
It's the American way!!
This will get you started. He he he
The rich always support cutting edge technolgy, because they can!
The price will drop as regulations kick in and the general public will have easier access.
Now we wait and see what happens.
All the best to these guys.
BUMP!
I didn't catch If it had passengers or just weight.
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