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SpaceDev Snags Scaled Composites' Suborbital Rocket Plane Contract
space.com ^
| 09/12/03
| Leonard David
Posted on 09/18/2003 5:11:39 PM PDT by KevinDavis
Scaled Composites announced the selection Thursday of SpaceDev of Poway, California as the vendor of choice to supply key elements of the SpaceShipOne's hybrid rocket motor.
The selection moves closer the day when SpaceShipOne will attempt to power itself to the edge of space. The craft is being designed to make suborbital flights in order to snag the $10 million X Prize -- a competition to help spur public sector space travel.
Under the watchful eye of aerospace maverick and head of Scaled Composites, Burt Rutan, a team of aero-rocket experts have carried out a step-by-step program to ready SpaceShipOne for its maiden trek to suborbital heights. The White Knight carrier plane, as has SpaceShipOne, have already undergone a number of shakeout flights.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: rutan; space; spacedev; xprize
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Stock to buy -> Spacedev
To: Normal4me; RightWhale; demlosers; Prof Engineer; BlazingArizona; ThreePuttinDude; Brett66; ...
Space Ping! This is the space ping list! Let me know if you want on or off this list!
2
posted on
09/18/2003 5:12:45 PM PDT
by
KevinDavis
(Let the meek inherit the Earth, the rest of us will explore the stars!)
To: KevinDavis
I don't like Burt Rutan, and I don't think this suborbital "White Knight" is going to be the so-called sparkplug for commercial space travel...I'd still pay to go up in it, though.
To: KevinDavis
And correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Rutan design Helios I, that recently crashed? Not that I'm taking away from that impressive achievement, something about him just rubs me the wrong way.
To: KevinDavis
Cool, they might be doing powered flights of SS1 wiyhin a month.
5
posted on
09/18/2003 5:42:16 PM PDT
by
Brett66
To: Brett66
wiyhin=within
6
posted on
09/18/2003 5:42:39 PM PDT
by
Brett66
To: Brett66
December 16th or December 17th.
7
posted on
09/18/2003 5:45:35 PM PDT
by
KevinDavis
(Let the meek inherit the Earth, the rest of us will explore the stars!)
To: KevinDavis
That will be THE test, but I imagine he will want to do some powered tests before going all the way to space.
8
posted on
09/18/2003 5:53:29 PM PDT
by
Brett66
To: KevinDavis
I think I might e-mail Fox News and badger them to have complete coverage of this event. They may anyway, but maybe they don't have any specific plans as of yet. I think this merits at least an hour repreive from the latest Laci Peterson developments.
9
posted on
09/18/2003 5:56:19 PM PDT
by
Brett66
To: Flightdeck
Picked off of Space Ref:
As much as 75 percent, by weight, of the Helios Prototype solar electric airplane that crashed into the Pacific Ocean June 26 has been recovered from the waters several miles west of the Hawaiian island of Kauai.
The Helios Prototype is part of a NASA Dryden Flight Research Center project to develop unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technologies to enable UAVs to perform a variety of long-duration missions including environmental monitoring and telecommunications relay services. Helios was built and operated by AeroVironment, Inc. of Monrovia, Calif.
Burt Rutan's company is Scaled Composites LLC, Mojave, CA.
Just out of curiosity why don't you like Burt Rutan?
To: Flightdeck
I don't like Burt Rutan, and I don't think this suborbital "White Knight" is going to be the so-called sparkplug for commercial space travel...I'd still pay to go up in it, though. I don't like Bill Gates, or Larry Ellison, or Steve Jobs, but that's not the point.
They are brilliant cut-throat assholes.
So is Burt Rutan.
That is a recipe for success.
I wouldn't want any of them in the family, but I sure want them running companies I invest in.
So9
11
posted on
09/18/2003 6:17:14 PM PDT
by
Servant of the 9
(Real Texicans; we're grizzled, we're grumpy and we're armed)
To: Flightdeck
I don't like Burt Rutan, and I don't think this suborbital "White Knight" is going to be the so-called sparkplug for commercial space travel...I'd still pay to go up in it, though. I don't like Bill Gates, or Larry Ellison, or Steve Jobs, but that's not the point.
They are brilliant cut-throat assholes.
So is Burt Rutan.
That is a recipe for success.
I wouldn't want any of them in the family, but I sure want them running companies I invest in.
So9
12
posted on
09/18/2003 6:17:29 PM PDT
by
Servant of the 9
(Real Texicans; we're grizzled, we're grumpy and we're armed)
To: Brett66
I agree, for what its worth CNN has best space coverage, Fox should improve on it. We should e-mail Foxnews this story.
13
posted on
09/18/2003 6:25:17 PM PDT
by
KevinDavis
(Let the meek inherit the Earth, the rest of us will explore the stars!)
To: KevinDavis
SPDV it is. I'm not going to buy any more right now, though.
14
posted on
09/18/2003 7:16:30 PM PDT
by
RightWhale
(Repeal the Law of the Excluded Middle)
To: Servant of the 9
They are brilliant cut-throat assholes. So is Burt Rutan. Really?
Who's the competition he beat up on?
If there weren't a scaled composites, then this stuff just wouldn't get done. All the rest (in the X prize competition) are either failures, or frauds.
15
posted on
09/18/2003 7:39:07 PM PDT
by
narby
To: tricky_k_1972
I haven't looked it up, but I'm almost positive Rutan was Helios' designer. I'll check it out.
To: Flightdeck
The fact that someone designed an airplane which later crashed does not necesarily reflect on his competence.
"Pilot error" is a frequent cause of crashes. Even in an unmanned plane there is someone controlling it.
To: CurlyDave
I know. I said it was an impressive design. I believe it was the first to fly around the world with no refueling.
To: Flightdeck
And if memory serves, it got up to @ 95,000 ft.
To: Flightdeck
That wasn't Helios. The plane you're talking about is in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. For someone who professes to hate Rutan you're remarkably ignorant of his achievements.
20
posted on
09/19/2003 3:55:47 AM PDT
by
Arkie2
(It's a literary fact that the number of words written will grow exponentially to fill the space avai)
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