Government Licenses First Private Rocket

Associated Press ^ | Apr 7, 2004 | LESLIE MILLER

[anymouse]

The government announced Wednesday that it has issued the first license for a manned suborbital rocket, a step toward opening space flight to private individuals for the first time.

The Federal Aviation Administration gave a one-year license to Scaled Composites of Mojave, Calif., headed by Burt Rutan. Rutan, who hopes to make affordable space travel a reality in a decade, is best known for designing the Voyager airplane that made the first nonstop, unrefueled flight around the world in 1986.

"This is a big step," FAA spokesman Henry Price said.

The Scaled Composites craft consists of a rocket plane, dubbed SpaceShipOne, and the White Knight, an exotic jet designed to carry it aloft for a high-altitude launch. SpaceShipOne, made of graphite and epoxy, has short wings and twin vertical tails. It reached 12.9 miles in a trial flight; the license will allow the spacecraft to reach the edge of space, about 60 miles up.

The license is a prerequisite for the X Prize competition, an international space race that will give $10 million to the first company or person to launch a manned craft to 62.5 miles above the Earth, and then do it again within two weeks. The craft must be able to carry three people.

The FAA is considering two other applications, Price said. One is an X Prize contestant.

Twenty-seven contestants from seven countries have registered for the X Prize competition.

The prize, announced in 1996, is sponsored by the privately funded X Prize Foundation in St. Louis. Supporters include Dennis Tito, the American who spent $20 million to fly in a Russian craft as the first space tourist; pilot Erik Lindbergh, the grandson of Charles Lindbergh; former astronaut and U.S. Senator John Glenn; and actor Tom Hanks.

Rutan declined to comment. The company states on its Web site that its goal is to show that private space flight can be done, and at a low cost.

"We look to the future, hopefully within 10 years, when ordinary people, for the cost of a luxury cruise, can experience a rocket flight into the black sky above the earth's atmosphere, enjoy a few minutes of weightless excitement, then feel the thunderous deceleration of the aerodynamic drag on entry," the statement says.

Before launching the spacecraft in the X Prize competition, Scaled Composites must give the prize sponsors 90 days notice, Price said. The company can launch its rocket before that, he said, but it must be in an area that isn't risky.

Scaled Composites is located in the Mojave Desert.

FAA inspectors carefully examined the space vehicle to make sure it's safe, said Price.

"There's no sure thing in anything when it comes to rocketry," he said. "We want to do what we can with the knowledge we have to make sure the launch is as safe as possible for the public."

The company also had to demonstrate that it was adequately insured for a launch and that it met environmental standards, Price said.

A suborbital flight reaches space but doesn't travel fast enough or high enough to complete an orbit.

[anymouse]

We have a "go" for launch. :)

[anymouse]

Commercial space ping

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[John Will]

Is that a rocket in your pocket?

[bayourod]

Sears just announced that it will be opening "Rocket Piloting Schools" in all of its 87 thousand stores. They guarantee that you will pass the Rocket license test or they will let you take the course again until you do pass.

Of course you have to take the test in your own rocket.

[KevinDavis]

Well it is about frelling time.

[Army Air Corps]

Could this be a new US manufacturing sector...

[BenLurkin]

Yeah Ba-by!

[tpaine]

"The government announced Wednesday that it has issued the first license for a manned suborbital rocket, a step toward opening space flight to private individuals for the first time."

______________________________________


It's quite amusing that the US government actually believes it has the power to open "space flight to private individuals for the first time."

If Rutan wanted to launch elsewhere, I'm sure any number of countries would have welcomed him without some phony bureaucratic 'licensing' scheme.

[sigSEGV]

I was under the impression he was going to launch from Saskatchewan Canada anyway.

[anymouse]

That's his Canadian competitor that plans to launch via a balloon from Saskatchewan.

Of course the threat of such a historic milestone being forfeited to Canada because of USG bureaucracy might have motivated the FAA to get off of its duff and let Burt have a license. It's bad enough when the Russians and the Chinese are showing us up in space - but when the Canadians out do us, that's just plain embarrassing. :)

[gonzo]

Guys, the biggest obstacle to private rocketry has been the law that prohibits 'guided' rockets.

Think about it. We've had guidance technology for 60 years. We just didn't want rockets being guided into bridges or buildings and such.

We just didn't figure on a bunch of Islamaniacs doing it with aircraft............FRegards

[Army Air Corps]

Strange, isn't it? An amatuer rocketeer can be trusted to build a high altitude rocket with a static thrust of over 2,000lbs, but the Feds will eat him/her alive if they install a servo-actuated canard or fin. I would like to see in what classification the FAA placed this little gem.

[gonzo]

"...I would like to see in what classification the FAA placed this little gem..."

It isn't the FAA. It's the DOD, and they'll put you in a dungeon if you try.

It's actually a good rule when thought out. I narrowly avoided the dungeon.................FRegards

[Rockitz]

Tough days to be a rocket scientist. Bush didn't do the true rocket jockeys any favors back in January.

[PRND21]

[theFIRMbss]

>Tough days to be a rocket scientist

She packed my bags last night pre-flight
Zero hour nine a.m.
And I'm gonna be high as a kite by then
I miss the earth so much I miss my wife
It's lonely out in space
On such a timeless flight

And I think it's gonna be a long long time
Till touch down brings me round again to find
I'm not the man they think I am at home
Oh no no no I'm a rocket man
Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone

Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids
In fact it's cold as hell
And there's no one there to raise them if you did
And all this science I don't understand
It's just my job five days a week
A rocket man, a rocket man

And I think it's gonna be a long long time...

[Rocket Man, Elton John & Bernie Taupin]

[Army Air Corps]

I wasn't speaking of the amateur rocket, I was speaking of Scaled Compoites' entry for the X-Prize.

[jpsb]

What are yall, talking about?

[Army Air Corps]

In amateur rocketry it is a big time "No-No" to equip a rocket with any kind of guidance system. Not only will such a rocket be disqualified in any competition, the Feds will want to ask some very pointed questions of you. My question was directed at the classification that the FAA assigned to Dick Rutan's entry in the X-prize. The FAA has classifications/certifications for all sorts of aircraft (balloons, helicopters, dirigibles, gliders, etc.) and I wanted to know how this entry was classified and certified.