Posted on 12/04/2005 10:06:31 AM PST by KevinDavis
MOJAVE, California – XCOR's EZ-Rocket flew into the history books today. The craft made a record-setting point-to-point flight, departing here from the Mojave California Spaceport, gliding to a touchdown at a neighboring airport in California City.
The rocket plane was piloted by Dick Rutan, no stranger to milestone-making voyages. In 1986, Rutan was co-pilot on the Voyager airplane that made the first nonstop, around-the-world flight without refueling.
The EZ-Rocket is a modified Long-EZ homebuilt aircraft. The vehicle is propelled by twin 400-pound thrust, regeneratively cooled rocket engines and fueled by isopropyl alcohol and liquid oxygen.
The EZ-Rocket is able to stop and restart its engines in mid-flight, as well as perform rocket-powered touch-and-goes on a runway.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
From yesterday:
XCOR Rocket Plane Soars into Record Book
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1533602/posts
Wasn't there a private orbital flight that was scheduled for last week and then was postponed for a day? I never heard whether they eventually went ahead. I assume they haven't or it would have been news. What's the plan now?
Yes,
It was SpaceX (in El Segundo) launching from Kwajalein. I never heard anything after the 1 day delay.
> Wasn't there a private orbital flight that was scheduled
> for last week and then was postponed for a day?
They experienced an unintended LOX vent, and had no spare
LOX to make up the loss. It will take a few days to get
some to the launch site.
See:
http://spaceflightnow.com/falcon/f1/051126scrub.html
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