Posted on 08/25/2004 7:15:17 PM PDT by KevinDavis
Pioneering aerospace designer Burt Rutan claims early lead in race for Ansari X Prize
Looking like something out of a Japanese sci-fi cartoon, the futuristic space plane dropped from its mother ship 14 kilometers above Edwards Air Force Base, east of Mojave, Calif., and lit its rocket engine. The winged craft shot straight up, up, and still up, marked by a milky white smoke trail. It didn't curve toward any horizon, the way most rockets do, as they head toward a stable orbit as quickly as possible. More than 30 000 viewers in the desert tilted their heads back farther and farther, mouths agape, necks starting to ache, for the 76 seconds that pilot Michael W. Melvill let the engine burn [see photo, "Is It a Bird? A Plane?"].
It was the most momentous suborbital hop since Alan Shepard rode his Freedom 7 capsule to an altitude of 187.4 km in 1961. IEEE Spectrum was on hand at Mojave Airport in California on 21 June for the launch of the unusual privately funded space plane, SpaceShipOne, which was designed by Burt Rutan and his team at Scaled Composites LLC in Mojave. Paul Allen, Microsoft Corp.'s cofounder, funded Rutan's project, ostensibly to win the US $10 million Ansari X Prize for the first workable "space tourist" vehicle. But Rutan and Allen's gaze was directed far beyond that prize [see photo, "Guinness Record"]. Considering they spent more than twice as much money as they could win, clearly they were looking to participate in a future of commercial space travel for ordinary—albeit rich—people.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectrum.ieee.org ...
This is an article about the flight made in June, right? It's not about a flight made since then, is it?
Article says june 21.
It's an article about genius and practical application...and a goal that should be beyond the reach of a small group of people not funded by big government.
Who really cares when the flight took place.
PS: they failed to note that the pilot is near retirement age for most of us and doing just fine thank you!
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