Posted on 10/04/2004 8:07:36 AM PDT by VoteHarryBrowne2000
(Mojave, Calif.-AP, Oct 4, 2004 Updated 10:54 AM) _ A stubby rocket plane was slung from the belly of a carrier plane toward space Monday in the final leg of a trip toward the edge of the Earth's atmosphere and a $10 million prize.
A new pilot and potential astronaut, Brian Binnie, was chosen to fly the second flight into space in six days for SpaceShipOne, the rocket plane funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen.
The carrier plane took off from a desert runway and the plane was released in midair and fired its rocket to continue on its own to an altitude of just over 62 miles -- generally considered to be the point where the Earth's atmosphere ends and space begins.
If it succeeds, the backers will claim the Ansari X Prize, intended to spur private enterprise to develop rockets that could carry tourists into space. The $10 million award goes to the first privately built, manned rocket ship to fly in space twice in a span of two weeks.
A crowd of thousands of space enthusiasts and a throng of news media gathered at Mojave Airport in the early morning darkness to watch the flight. Last week, SpaceShipOne rolled dozens of times as it hurtled toward space at three times the speed of sound.
The choice of Binnie as Monday's pilot was kept secret until hours before the scheduled takeoff. One of four pilots who have undergone special training to fly SpaceShipOne, Binnie was at the controls when it broke the sound barrier for the first time on a December test flight.
Both the first flight by a private plane into space on June 21 and the latest flight on Wednesday were flown by Michael Melvill, who has been awarded the nation's first commercial astronaut wings by the Federal Aviation Administration.
After a safety analysis, SpaceShipOne designer Burt Rutan posted preliminary information about last week's flight on his Web site this weekend to address what he called the "incorrect rumors" that have circulated.
The first roll occurred at a high speed, about Mach 2.7, but aerodynamic loads on the spacecraft were low and decreasing rapidly "so the ship never saw any significant structural stresses," he said.
Ansari X Prize founder Peter Diamandis hoped the multimillion-dollar incentive would have the same effect on space travel as the Orteig Prize had on air travel. Charles Lindbergh claimed that $25,000 prize in 1927 after making his solo trans-Atlantic flight.
Major funding came from the Ansari family of Dallas. More than two dozen teams around the world are trying to win the prize, but only SpaceShipOne has reached space.
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe came to Mojave to watch last week's flight, and Marion C. Blakey, head of the Federal Aviation Administration, came to watch Monday's flight.
"I think it's an enormous step because what it does, really, is establish I think in the minds of the average American the fact that that this is something that you can actually consider in your lifetime," Blakey said Sunday.
Last week, Richard Branson, the British airline mogul and adventurer, announced that beginning in 2007, he will begin offering paying customers flights into space aboard rockets like the SpaceShipOne. He plans to call the service Virgin Galactic.
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On the Net:
X Prize: http://www.xprize.org
SpaceShipOne: http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/
Did you see the show on Discovery Channel last night? "Black Sky: The Race for Space premieres Sunday, Oct. 3 at 9 p.m. ET/PT, to be followed by an update on Thursday, Oct. 7, at 9 p.m. ET/PT. "
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/raceforspace/raceforspace.html
Beautiful!! This is just amazing. Last time I got goosebumps like this was '69, men on the moon. Maybe *this* time we can actually go someplace with spaceflight.
He just landed a few minutes ago. It was awesome.
Did they do it?
Great. My question is answered.
Brian Binnie is back on the ground. Perfect flight.
They said on tv they went higher than the X-15 did back in the sixties! OUTSTANDING! Americans are still inovative, still take risks for great purpose. Even in this risk aversion obsessed society we live.
Done deal, successful flight and landing.
I remember listening to the first moon landing when I was little.
The show last night was just as thrilling.
Made even better by the fact that it was no giga-billion dollar project.
Leave it to the private sector to do it faster and cheaper and maybe even safer.
Do you think the Dinosaurs knew what they were looking at when that comet smashed into the Earth?
I actually cried with joy on the 1st flight & again this morning.
It was just awesome!!!! Now, I have to start saving up for my space trip!!!
"Black Sky" was certainly inspiring, but damn scary as well. From what I saw, every single powered flight (and one of the drop tests) of the SpaceShip One nearly ended in disaster. This flight-testing-on-the-cheap approach really brings back the bloodcurdling, er romance of the Chuck Yeager test-piloting golden age. (I shudder to think of a pilot actually having to use that escape procedure, a WWII ball-turret gunner would have more chance getting out in a pinch).
No two ways about it. Rutan's "Feathering/Shuttlecock" re-entry configuration is pure, undiluted genius. In fact it turns re-entry into the easy part of the flight (baleful, shuddering vibrations notwithstanding). Is wind-tunnel testing really that expensive that he must eschew it entirely?
Well who would have thunk it??? AND without government's hand in the whole process. That's what free enterprise does for you.
Press conference in a couple hours
We did go some place, be we gave up.
We should of have had a permanent scientific research/observatory outpost station on the lunar surface, years ago. We barely scratched the lunar surface. We just gave up.
Heavy sigh... Someplace as opposed to 35 years of pretty much same old same old. Excuse me for not making myself *perfectly* clear, and therefore open to parsing. Sheesh!
Clear Channel Worldwide News just announced that Rutan's spaceship may fly today.
It was Go Go Go all the way!
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