Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - First privately funded rocket breaks through earth's atmosphere

denim · 09-30-2004, 04:22 AM

Well, given that I'm now up, 24-hours after I was awake yesterday for this, I'm using the time to go through the images, some of which are AVIs I had the camera make. Let me give a bit of a time line. Note that I was associated with X-COR, which is not Scaled Composites, but is doing some similar things. That's why they're at Mojave.

22:00 Tuesday: arrive at X-COR, finding the BBQ party going on
22:05 Find out that they're not taking overnight people, unlike what I was told a month or so ago. They found me a hotel room in Tehachapi, one of the last in the area.
22:10 Arrange for a ride back tomorrow.
03:00 Wednesday: wake up. My ride is with John Hanks, a Media guy with a Press badge, and he wants to GET THERE as soon after they actually open (now) as possible.
03:55 arrive at X-COR's hanger. Wake up Aleta to let me in. No one else is there yet other than Mouser, the cat.
05:00 other people arrive at X-COR and wake Aleta up again. This time, she just stays up and starts making breakfast. Note that unlike my picture caption text, she doesn't <i>really</i> use the Tea Cart Rocket to cook the bacon nice and crispy, but rather uses a normal electric skillet. It was much less noisy that way.

When stuff started to happen after around 06:30 with sunrise, I went outside the hanger with X-COR's intern to set up some people barriers. The brisk wind off the mountains blew them away, so we had to weight them down with stuff.

It was dark and chilly out there. Few people were around. It was warmer and there were munchies inside the hanger, but I stayed outside. I've rarely encountered that kind of environment: an airport a large runway in a small town with mountains in the distance. "And darkness was upon the face of the deep." Yeah, that too: it were dark out. I was dressed in a t-shirt and denim shorts, so it was one of the few situations where being fat was useful. I got cold, sure, but it took longer.

The sun came up slowly, and things started to happen. More people showed up at the X-COR hanger, for instance. Then the news of the name of the pilot for the launch was announced over the radio. Later, the space craft/airplane combination went by. Dammit, I don't see that I got a picture of this! It went right by us, and I didn't get a picture!

Continuing....

09-30-2004, 04:22 AM	#64 (permalink)
denim Banned Location: Massachusetts, USA	Well, given that I'm now up, 24-hours after I was awake yesterday for this, I'm using the time to go through the images, some of which are AVIs I had the camera make. Let me give a bit of a time line. Note that I was associated with X-COR, which is not Scaled Composites, but is doing some similar things. That's why they're at Mojave. 22:00 Tuesday: arrive at X-COR, finding the BBQ party going on 22:05 Find out that they're not taking overnight people, unlike what I was told a month or so ago. They found me a hotel room in Tehachapi, one of the last in the area. 22:10 Arrange for a ride back tomorrow. 03:00 Wednesday: wake up. My ride is with John Hanks, a Media guy with a Press badge, and he wants to GET THERE as soon after they actually open (now) as possible. 03:55 arrive at X-COR's hanger. Wake up Aleta to let me in. No one else is there yet other than Mouser, the cat. 05:00 other people arrive at X-COR and wake Aleta up again. This time, she just stays up and starts making breakfast. Note that unlike my picture caption text, she doesn't <i>really</i> use the Tea Cart Rocket to cook the bacon nice and crispy, but rather uses a normal electric skillet. It was much less noisy that way. When stuff started to happen after around 06:30 with sunrise, I went outside the hanger with X-COR's intern to set up some people barriers. The brisk wind off the mountains blew them away, so we had to weight them down with stuff. It was dark and chilly out there. Few people were around. It was warmer and there were munchies inside the hanger, but I stayed outside. I've rarely encountered that kind of environment: an airport a large runway in a small town with mountains in the distance. "And darkness was upon the face of the deep." Yeah, that too: it were dark out. I was dressed in a t-shirt and denim shorts, so it was one of the few situations where being fat was useful. I got cold, sure, but it took longer. The sun came up slowly, and things started to happen. More people showed up at the X-COR hanger, for instance. Then the news of the name of the pilot for the launch was announced over the radio. Later, the space craft/airplane combination went by. Dammit, I don't see that I got a picture of this! It went right by us, and I didn't get a picture! Continuing....