Posted on 09/28/2004 11:55:14 AM PDT by theFIRMbss
Date set for space prize attempt
The team behind the private spacecraft, SpaceShipOne, says it will attempt the Ansari X-Prize in two flights on 29 September and 4 October. The $10m (£5.7m) prize awards the first team to send a three-person craft over 100km, and repeat the feat in the same craft within two weeks.
SpaceShipOne, built by aviation pioneer Burt Rutan, became the first private manned craft to go to space in June.
Another 25 teams across the world are competing for the prize.
Possible third
Although the fights have been scheduled, Rutan did not rule out the possibility of a third attempt if one of the other flights was not successful.
The two successful flights would have to take place before 13 October, according to the X-Prize rules.
A Canadian team of contenders, the da Vinci Project Team, also announced it was ready to show off its spacecraft, Wild Fire, on 5 August.
It said it intended to attempt the X-Prize later in the autumn, but no date was set.
"I'm pleased to announce that the first team is ready to make an attempt to claim the $10 million, with other teams close behind," said Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, Chairman and Founder of the X-Prize Foundation.
"The American Mojave Aerospace Ventures Team and the Canadian da Vinci Project Team are just two of the 26 competing groups who will someday make it possible for space flights to be conducted from commercial spaceports across the globe."
When the X-Prize is won, it is hoped it will usher in a new generation of commercial space travel.
Any team which attempts prize must give the X-Prize Foundation 60 days' notice.
Among the 25 others competing for the prize is the British civilian space project Starchaser Industries which plans to launch its own rocket in 18 months.
Dry-run
June's historic flight, a dry-run for the prize, saw SpaceShipOne carried to 46,000ft (13.8km) by its airborne launcher, White Knight, at which point it ignited its rockets to continue its journey alone.
It reached an altitude of 62.2 miles (100.12 km) earning astronaut wings for its civilian pilot, Michael Melvill.
There was some concern during the flight about a technical problem that had caused Melvill to use a back-up system to maintain control of the craft.
But the team, funded largely by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, discovered after extensive data analysis that it had been just "a brief lockout" which only lasted three seconds.
SpaceShipOne's X-Prize attempts will take place at Mojave Airport Civilian Aerospace Test Center in Mojave, California.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/sci/tech/3932377.stm
Published: 2004/07/28 10:55:36 GMT
© BBC MMIV
Point of order. Actually, history gets made on Oct. 4, when they make the second flight and win the X-Prize.
IMHO, the prize is simply a technicality. History was made when SpaceShipOne passed through what most scientists consider to be the boundary of the atmosphere (aka the Karman line), and made Michael Melvill the world's first civilian astronaut.
It's like having sex
with Sting -- it starts on Wednesday,
and ends next Monday . . .
I guess they would have won alread if they used Linux instead of Windows.
What, vomiting up red-hot razor blades?
That was history,
and so was the Virgin deal. *
Lots of history . . .
--------------------------------------------------------
* Virgin to Launch Commercial Space Flights
LONDON - British entrepreneur Richard Branson said Monday that his company planned to launch commercial space flights over the next few years.
Branson's Virgin transport, entertainment and communications group has signed an agreement with pioneering aviation designer Burt Rutan to build an aircraft based on Rutan's SpaceShipOne vessel, Branson said. . . .
GO RUTAN
Fuel? Check!
Chase plane? Check!
World's media eye? Check!
Stock dumped? Check!
Go for launch!
Pictures anyone?
http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/gallery/flight_general
So that's 9am EST right?
No, the first private, non-governmental astronaut. There have been plenty of civilian astronauts (i.e. Neil Armstrong)
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