SpaceShipOne Was Not Out of Control, Builder and Pilot Say

space.com ^ | 09/29/04 | Leonard David

[KevinDavis]

MOJAVE, CALIFORNIA – The frightening spin of SpaceShipOne during its trip into space Wednesday was caused by a known deficiency and at no time led to an out-of-control situation, officials said today.

The privately built and financed suborbital vehicle shot to an unofficial altitude record of 63.9 miles (102.9 kilometers) during a flight that had ground controllers and webcast viewers worrying for a few tense moments as the craft went into an unexpected series of rolls.

Assuming the altitude is verified, SpaceShipOne is one step away from winning $10 million Ansari X Prize, which will be given to the first team that can send a three-person craft 62 miles (100 kilometers) up within two weeks.

A decision on whether to attempt the second flight as early as Sunday will be rendered by late Thursday, officials said during a post-flight press conference.

[KevinDavis]

Just as long they launch before the Bears game on Sunday, I say go for it..

[KevinDavis]

[Larry Lucido]

"the first team that can send a three-person craft 62 miles"

Do the three people have to be in the craft, or does it just have to be big enough to fit three people?

[BurbankKarl]

One day they are going to take off in that thing at Mojave and land in Edwards...and China Lake...and Tehachapi.

[Ptarmigan]

The pilot got too carried away from being excited, so it rolled.

[KevinDavis]

DOH!!!!

[sionnsar]

Just as long they launch before the Bears game on Sunday, I say go for it..

With my luck they'll launch Monday when I will be on an airplane, incommunicado.

[Pukin Dog]

Any roll that YOU CANT STOP is out of control. I'm glad they succeeded, but there is no need for that kind of BS from them. That sucker was rolling 720dps. Most fighters wont roll that fast if you wanted them to.

[Ptarmigan]

WAHOO!!!!!

[Jambe]

3 person requirement:

1) must have the space and capability to carry 3 people, although not all 3 people must fly.

2) if 3 people don't fly, additional weight must be added to offset missing passengers.

That's the way I understand it in order to win!

[eno_]

That sucker was rolling 720dps.

That just shows the influence of software development on other engineering disciplines:

"That's not a bug, it's a feature."

[SoggyBottomBoy]

I heard for the test they can have the pilot and the "weight" of 2 other people onboard.

[Larry Lucido]

Thanks. I couldn't tell from the excerpt whether this flight was manned. Apparently it was:

Roaring straight up through the sky after release from the White Knight carrier plane, SpaceShipOne began rolling at the top of its flight, with pilot Mike Melvill at the controls.

"I didn’t actually have any discomfort," he said. "I thought it was kind of cool."

[PokeyJoe]

that's not a bug, that's an unrequested feature

[Max Combined]

"The frightening spin of SpaceShipOne during its trip into space Wednesday was caused by a known deficiency and at no time led to an out-of-control situation"

That is not what it looked like. It looked like it was on the verge of spinning out of control.

[dc-zoo]

I was afraid a wing would break off with the frequency of that roll.

[Samurai_Jack]

It's GoldPlated!!

[Jaysun]

I watched the flight and landing live on Fox today.

It was a clear blow to crazy idea of "privatization." You have these guys that spent less than 30 million on an brilliantly designed craft that went to space and back safely. They skipped right over many important steps.

They didn't spend hundreds of millions of dollars researching the feasibility of their mission. Second, their craft is obviously well below the 10 billion dollar mark and can't be considered serious. Third, they're severely understaffed. They need to step aside and let NASA handle this.

[KevinDavis]

Sorry NASA has been doing a lousy job...

[sionnsar]

LOL. Three decades ago I was working at NASA Ames when a researcher (okay, "scientist") there made the morose pronouncement that NASA had just passed a significant milestone: They now had more than one bureaucrat for every researcher.