Space Ship One --> Good for them!!

From cnn:

"MOJAVE DESERT, California (CNN) -- SpaceShipOne successfully blasted into space at about Mach 3, or three times the speed of sound, above the California desert on Wednesday in its quest to win the Ansari X Prize.

It touched down in a smooth landing about 11:35 a.m. ET, completing a successful flight despite nail-biting moments.

The spacecraft encountered problems shortly after the rocket ignited during its vertical ascent. It unexpectedly began a series of more than 20 barrel rolls.

It was not clear why the craft lost manuvering control. As SpaceShipOne turned groundward, however, pilot Mike Melvill regained control and steadied the craft.

"The trajectory was good, the roll was off," said **** Rutan, a test pilot and brother of Burt Rutan, the SpaceShipOne designer. "I was worried. That wasn't the way it was supposed to be."

An official altitude for SpaceShipOne of 358,000 feet -- well in excess of 62.9 miles (100 km) -- was recorded by radar at the site.

This marks the first of two successful flights the team needs to win the $10 million Ansari X Prize.

SpaceShipOne lifted off from a runway in the Mojave Desert in California, at 10:12 a.m. ET Wednesday.

The revolutionary spacecraft, the first privately financed vehicle to send humans into space, made its first of two qualifying flights in order to claim the prize.

The plane White Knight carried SpaceShipOne, attached beneath it, to about 50,000 feet where the spacecraft detached and rocketed into space.

To win the contest, privately financed spacecraft must launch three people, or their weight equivalent, to space twice within two weeks.

SpaceShipOne carried only the pilot, Melvill, on Wednesday's flight.

The second flight, which must reach an altitude of 100 kilometers, is scheduled for October 4."



One down, one to go!

American ingenuity at its best./ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

Cheers,

Dave

It's neat, but what's the point? NASA was doing that 40 years ago. The US Army Air Corps was doing it 55 years ago. The Russians have done it. The Chinese have done it. Now it's just a stunt.

The budget for SpaceShipOne is a shoestring compared to the billions lavished on national space programs. The fact that a team was able to get into low orbit with a budget of a mere $25 million (admittedly less than the $10 million X-Prize) is the real accomplishment. They also built their spacecraft from scratch.

I'm eagerly awaiting orbital elevators which will largely eliminate costly launch vehicles and be far more cost-efficient than all other means of reaching orbit.

They did quite a bit of spinning at the end of the burn, I was watching that thinking either the pilot was showing off or they were having some serious problems. I had a few very short breaths, but the engines cut off and all was OK...

Way to go burt!!! It just so rocks to have more than 1 agency capable of launching a person! (oh, well, I guess at the moment burt is the only one /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif )

Apparently, Rutan's mother recently died, and her ashes went along on SpaceShip One today. Nice touch.

I don't think these folks achieved low orbit. They went straight up 100km and came right back down without orbiting anything. Yes, that is an impressive altitude, but $25M is not exactly a shoestring budget, either. Only by NASA standards, but the guys at Murdoc in the late 1940's didn't have NASA funding and they were doing the engineering with a pencil and a slide rule and no precedent.

I don't see this contributing anything to aerospace science. This is an expensive hobby for rich kids who can't be the first to baloon around the world any more. Not that there is anything wrong with an expensive hobby, but it's not like they are building a colony on the Moon or something.

[ QUOTE ]
Lurker said:
I don't think these folks achieved low orbit. They went straight up 100km and came right back down without orbiting anything.

[/ QUOTE ]

The altitude of 100 km is generally recognized as the boundary between the Earth's atmosphere and space, so whether the vehicle was in "orbit" in the colloquial sense isn't really the issue. (In the strictest physical sense, all ballistic projectiles are "in orbit"--it's just a question of whether or not the surface of the Earth gets in the way on the trip back.) As for the technological significance of the X-Prize competition, the 2-week turnaround time is the most impressive part. All of our current space vehicles are either disposable (rockets) or else have a very expensive, complicated, and lengthy refurbishment process before they are ready to fly again (the Space Shuttle).

Achieving sustained orbit requires reaching a certain altitude and also a certain velocity that will keep you at that altitude indefinitely. In this case the altitude was reached but not the velocity. Being in orbit also requires more precise control of the re-entry stage. I would consider this stunt to be a sub-orbital flight. By your definition, "orbit" means nothing. A baseball would be in orbit when it leaves the pitcher's hand. Of what significance is that?

Have they achieved the 2-week turnaround yet?

Lurker, boy, thats a rather harsh assessment? There isn't much use to just going to the edge of space and coming back, other than it's certainly a milestone to doing an orbit.

Does anybody know if SS1 can carry enough gas to get up to orbital speed once it gets up to orbital altitude? And then there is the problem with shedding that orbital velocity to come back down again though. Right now they are basically falling back, which is a lot easier than a real re-entry...

I think that it's fantastic! Yes, it's sub-orbital. Yes there's not yet a lot of use for a quick 60 mile high flight. However.....

If they can do two flights in 2 weeks, it will be the fastest turnaround ever.

The cost of SS1 is NOT 25 million. The whole program from scratch was 25 million. I suspect SS2 will cost a fraction of that.

I hear that it might be scalable. That means future versions might be able to get into low orbit without needing a multi-million dollar launch vehicle. That would be fantastic.

The guys at Murdoc in the 40s had the resources of a government behind them. The X-Prize has gotten private enterprise interested in the idea.

And last, but not least... I may someday be able to fly into SPACE!

For those that are detracting from this achievment... what have you done that even comes close???

Daniel

http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/092704_scaled_paul_allen_virgin_galactic.htm

It's a good start.

Guys,
I think it's a great adventure, no matter who funded it, or who did something similar before.

This kind of thing makes the US great. Individuals who can do amazing things. What a thing to have the gonads to try.

I wish them well on their X Prize quest.

You don't see this kind of ability in the rest of the world.
Jack Crow in Iraq.

It is interesting that Richard Branson of Virgin Group (Virgin Records, Virgin Mobile cellular service, Virgin Cola, etc.) is a partner in Space Ship One according to the link above. I made an analogy to ballooning earlier in the thread and Branson was one of the people competing to be the first to balloon around the world a few years ago.

In the case of ballooning around the world, what is the point of pushing the boundaries of a technology that is completely obsolete as as form of transportation? It makes for a great personal adventure and challenge, but there is no significance beyond that. It is a rich man's hobby and nothing more. This space ship one thing is very similar. It's rich people playing with expensive toys. That's not a very big deal.

Now if they deveolp it into a commercial application, and someone like Richard Branson very well might, then they have accomplished something beyond hobby level and I will applaud their success. At this point, I am still skeptical, but I am watching.

UPDATE: This morning they did it! And they beat NASA's X-15's record altitude by 13,000 feet!!

Again -- good for them!

Cheers,

Dave

Edit: In the post flight press conference, Richard Branson announced that he has placed an order with Rutan for 5, 5-seater space craft for his commercial space flight tourism venture. For delivery three years from now. THERE's one of the "why's" for you skeptics.

very kool

some day maybe I will be able to go into space

I heard this morning that the people who run Star Ship One - er - SPACE Ship One won the $10,000,000 "X Prize", by reaching a suborbital altitude (~62 miles) two times within 14 days.

I guess we won't have starships until we develop warp drive. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Actually, they have NOT yet won the X-prize - there is one more condition to make - the Pilot must survive 24 hours after the flight (not kidding)

Has the pilot gone into hiding? I think I would with $10M riding on my life.

Another neat thing is that both the SpaceShipOne and the WhiteKnight (the "mother ship" -- and there's your trivia to remember for today) are very wonderful looking aircraft. Form follows function and all that. Great engineering and great design work. Fantastic job!

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/happy14.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/goodjob.gif

I SERIOUSLY doubt that this will have much of an effect on my life (it will never be cheap enough for me to do it!).

However I SERIOUSLY give these guys the thumbsup!!!!