Posted on 07/28/2004 10:07:46 AM PDT by BenLurkin
SANTA MONICA - The countdown has begun. Noted aviation designer Burt Rutan announced Tuesday that his SpaceShipOne will make its first flight attempt to win the $10 million Ansari X-Prize on Sept. 29 from the Mojave Airport Civilian Aerospace Test Center.
The SpaceShipOne team already claimed a historic first as the only privately funded manned space program to reach suborbital space with a successful June 21 flight to 328,000 feet.
The feat made pilot Mike Melvill the nation's first civilian astronaut in a nongovernment program.
Now Mojave Aerospace Ventures - the partnership between Rutan's Scaled Composites and billionaire investor Paul G. Allen, co-founder of Microsoft - is going for the gold.
The Ansari X-Prize competition, intended to jump-start the commercial space-travel industry, will award $10 million to the first privately funded team to successfully build and launch a spacecraft capable of carrying three people to 100 kilometers - 328,000 feet - and safely return to Earth, then turn around and duplicate the feat with the same ship within two weeks.
"Our job here is to motivate kids, to tell them … your dreams can come true," said Peter Diamandis, chairman and founder of the X-Prize Foundation.
"When the Ansari X-Prize is won, it will herald the start of a new renaissance of spaceflight in which the general public will have their chance to fly next."
Unveiled to the public in April 2003, SpaceShipOne is designed to be air-launched from the White Knight carrier aircraft, then use a rocket engine to boost it to 100 kilometers above the Earth, where the occupants experience weightlessness and see the blackness of space. Completing an arc, the spacecraft descends to a runway landing, much like a glider.
"I am absolutely beaming with pride," Rutan said at the Santa Monica Airport press conference. "We did meet our primary goal that a small, private company like ours can accomplish manned spaceflight."
Although the competition requires two flights within the two-week window, Rutan's team is preparing for three flights, in case one fails to reach the specified altitude.
With Sept. 29 as the opening date, the team has until Oct. 13 to successfully complete two flights. If all goes well, Rutan said the second flight could be as early as Oct. 4, the 47th anniversary of the Sputnik launch.
The competition requires the spacecraft to carry three passengers, or one pilot and the equivalent weight of two more, for a total of 270 kilograms (approximately 600 pounds).
In the first flight, SpaceShipOne will carry only the pilot and equivalent ballast, as it is considered an envelope-expansion test flight.
The June 21 flight did not carry all the extra weight required by the competition rules.
Rutan did not rule out the possibility of passengers for the second flight, however.
"Both Paul Allen and I want to fly in the back seat for the second flight," he said, adding that the waiting list of others clamoring for a seat is long and includes some illustrious names.
"I really do want to fly passengers on this ship," he said. "It has real seats, with seat belts. We are certainly considering flying people in the back seats."
Additionally, the team has been approached by four different groups - including the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency - to carry scientific research payloads aboard the spacecraft, Rutan said.
Pilots for the flights have not been selected yet, but will be chosen from among the three who have each flown at least one rocket-powered flight: Melvill, Peter Siebold and Brian Binnie.
Having already successfully flown the Ansari X-Prize flight profile, SpaceShipOne is favored to win the international competition. So far, it is the only team of the 26 competing to announce a flight attempt. The competition closes at the end of 2004.
However, close on the heels of the Mojave Aerospace Ventures team is Canada's daVinci Project.
"We're in the hunt," Project Team Leader and pilot Brian Feeney said at the same press conference Tuesday.
"We stood up. We have been counted."
The project's spacecraft, the Wild Fire rocket, will be unveiled to the public Aug. 5 in Toronto. It is designed to be launched from a reusable helium balloon at 80,000 feet, rocketing the remaining distance to the target altitude.
The daVinci Project is an all-volunteer effort, with some 600 people putting in more than 150,000 man-hours of work so far.
The team hopes to fly sometime this fall, with the intent to go to space on the first flight, Feeney said, as opposed to the series of envelope-expansion flights that SpaceShipOne went through.
SpaceShipOne's historic earlier flight, while successful in reaching the 328,000-foot mark, was not without mishap.
During the ascent, a failure in one of the flight-control systems caused SpaceShipOne to veer off course for a few seconds while Melvill switched to a backup system. This change of trajectory at supersonic speeds left Melvill about 20 miles off his intended re-entry point, but did not affect the safe landing.
At the time, Rutan called the control glitch the most serious problem in the program to date. However, after analysis of the spacecraft and flight data, it was determined that there was nothing inherently wrong with the flight-control system.
The altered trajectory was actually caused by windshear early in the flight, when the spacecraft was still at subsonic speeds, and an overcorrection by Melvill to right the spacecraft, Rutan said Tuesday.
As he tried to correct the flight angle during the coasting part of the ascent, Melvill maxed out the flight controls, causing a slight delay in the response by the control surfaces.
In accordance with his extensive flight training, Melvill immediately switched to the backup system, Rutan said.
Later analysis of the flight data showed that the problem actually fixed itself by the time the switch was made to the backup system.
"As it turns out, it was not anything serious," Rutan said. "It was not a big, serious thing, although at the time we reported (on the flight day), we thought it was a serious thing."
SpaceShipOne's flight path was further altered by a slightly crooked motor, which created some side thrust, Rutan said.
That alignment has been corrected.
As with the June 21 flight, SpaceShipOne's Ansari X-Prize competition flights will be open to the public at the Mojave Airport.
Tickets to the flights are available only online at www.xprize.org. The parking passes, which grant admission to the viewing area as well, are $35 per carload for general admission and $100 per carload for preferred parking. Each carload may have a maximum of eight people.
Parking will be available for self-contained recreational vehicles for the night before the announced launches. The 256 spaces may be secured for $100 each.
All passes are good for any or all of the flight attempts.
In addition, the flights will be Web cast by the X-Prize Foundation.
"We want to share the message around the world as loudly and strongly as possible," Diamandis said.
"TEST FLIGHT REPORT - Famed aviation designer Burt Rutan describes how his SpaceShipOne performed during its 21 test flights. He announced at a news conference in Santa Monica on July 27 that he will launch the space plane, scale model in right foreground, on Sept. 29 to compete for the $10 million Ansari X-Prize. At center rear is Amir Ansari, whose family is a sponsor of the competition. At right rear is former space shuttle pilot Rick Searfoss, who will be chief judge of the competition."
Ping
I know there was a link to a website that detailed how to invest in this venture. Has anyone checked it out? Seems like these guys are on the way to a viable alternative to NASA.
You too can build a rocket to go into space! Right after you get one of the worlds richest men to finance you.
They can put a man in space, but they still can't make a credible toupee!
Everything new starts out expensive. Once popularity grows, the only way to KEEP it expensive is to get government involved.
That rich man once started out as a kid. Did you have a point, or are you merely in need of extra dietary fiber?
For appox 20 million dollars Rutan got a working vehicle that has flown successfully. That same 20 million would get NASA a stack of paper.
Rutan didn't start out this way. Getting a rich backer is the result of years of hard work on smaller projects, and a track record of success. Rutan's reputation in the aviation community is easily worth $25M.
An excellent composite of Bert's work.
Cool!
Still a wannabee.
Sigh ......
But still, what he has done is not indicative of how this business will start. I mean, there are only so many of the top .00001% wealthiest people to fuel these kind of hobbies.
So what I'm saying is that we are at the "expensive hobby" stage which is all well and good. Aviation went through a similar stage which aided its growth. But the line about the boy seemed strange like, "Someday you too will own your own Superconducting Cyclotron".
No qualms from me about that. You're absolutely right. And well said I might add.
Thanks. Have a good day, A_F!
My dad paid 900 bucks for our first VCR (~1980).
The first CD players cost about 2 grand each.
Travel across the oceans once required the backing of royalty or large bsuiness concerns.
VCR and CD players are cheap giveaway items today. Travel across the oceans can be had at whim and is in the monetary reach of almost everyone.
It might not happen in my lifetime, but before this century is out travel to the moon will be as accessible as a trip to Europe.
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