First privately funded rocket breaks through earth's atmosphere
 

The entrepreneurial spirit in space!

I love this story. I find it totally inspiring on a historic human level. I also find it technologically fascinating. Burt Rutan, the rocketmaster, has had a hell of a life story and is worth researching as a maverick individual. His 62-year old test pilot, Mike Melvill, should become a household name along with that of Rutan’s. This is some good news to tell folks about who need a break from today's other headlines.

.....

The first privately funded piloted rocket plane has blasted through the earth's atmosphere. A piloted rocket plane has blasted through the earth's atmosphere to become the first privately funded vehicle to make it into space.

Manned by Mike Melvill, a 62-year-old test pilot, the teardrop-shaped rocket made a 55 second climb to 211,400 feet or 40 miles before free-falling to a near perfect landing at Mojave airport, about 80 miles north of Los Angeles in California.

SpaceShipOne is the brainchild of Burt Rutan, the designer of Voyager, which made the first non-stop flight around the world in 1986 without refuelling.

Previously two private individuals have managed to reach space: Santa Monica businessman Dennis Tito and South African Mark Shuttleworth.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...nt_1471435.htm

.................

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/...p?story=521429

Wow. That's really cool!

Damn fine piece of work. :)
They're probably the ones that will win the $10m X Prize.
Here's the official site.
http://www.xprize.com/

These pioneers are obviously not doing it for the prize since they've spent well over $10 million already.
Nope, they're in it because of the adventure.
The excitement of going where few men, or women, have gone before.
The challenge of breaking free of gravity's restraining bonds to fly into the vacuum of Space, where before only Government sponsored spaceships have flown unbound.

There's a kind of quiet awe in this that is hard for me to express.
I'm beginning to get excited about space travel again.

Man, this is a great time to be alive!

This flight didn't reach the altitude the x-prize requires, I think. (x-prize requires two 300,000+ foot flights using the same plane: that was a 200,000 foot flight). Still impressive.

I'm rooting for the Da Vinchi project. Their budget is under 10,000,000$, which is more in the spirit of the competition. =)

way too cool. if only more rich entrepeneurs would do stuff like this

What about all the abductees?

;)

*crackles* it's one small step for man..... *beep* a giant leap.....

Mike Melville and Burt Rutan, I doff my hat to them.

One hundred years from now....these guys will be the Wright Bros.

capitalism in space will be very good for new technologies.

It will be the winners of the X-prize that will get the fame... If these guys win it, and it is looking pretty for them, then they will get that sort of fame.

This reminds me of how things like space exploration, in general, can spark inspiration and good energy. We are a part of this wonderous universe - a lot of the truth is out there!

Thanks for the enthusiasm folks.
It's always good to see positive responses to positive stories. Good news can be compelling, too!

In a time when the world is so full of adversity, I'm so glad that there are still people out there who are doing what we as the human race should be striving for, a better future!

Yay for Melville and Rutan!:thumbsup:

Update it!

Countdown to historic space trip
SpaceShipOne, the first private manned spacecraft, is undergoing final preparations before its historic flight to the edge of space on Monday.
The craft, built by aviation pioneer Burt Rutan, will be launched into the sky by its carrier, White Knight, then rocket upwards to 100km (62 miles).

No private craft has ever been so high. In May, it reached 64km (40 miles) in a test flight, doubling its last best.

The attempt over California's Mojave Desert is due to launch at 1330 GMT.

Mr Rutan and his team from his company, Scaled Composites, hope the flight will take them closer to winning the Ansari X-prize of $10m (£5.7m) awarded to the first non-government, manned flight into space.

Windy concern

The as yet unnamed pilot will also rocket into the record books to become the first civilian to fly a spaceship out of Earth's atmosphere.

The pilot's name will be confirmed on Sunday. May's test flight was piloted by Mike Melvill.
If the mission is a success, SpaceShipOne will attempt the X-prize at a later stage.

To beat 25 other teams to the X-prize, SpaceShipOne must reach 100km - space's official boundary - twice in two weeks with a crew of three.

When the X-prize is claimed, it could open up the skies to future tourist trips to the edge of space for those bored of the usual beach holiday.

Monday's historic flight is being attempted early in the day (0630 PDT) because it is less likely to be very windy at that time and a lower Sun angle affords a better view.

High winds or cloudy skies could jeopardise the flight plans.

But BBC weatherman Rob McElwee told BBC News Online that the weather should be on the side of SpaceShipOne over the Mojave Desert.

Rocket burn

"On Monday morning, the pressure gradient will be loose," he explained. "That means relatively light winds, and in this case, from the surface to the tropopause.

"At launch height, it should be no more than 10 knots. But there is a possibility of a katabatic wind off the high ground. That may give a gusty surface wind around dawn."


A katabatic wind is a cool one that blows down a hillside. This is because the air at the top cools more quickly at night then sinks because it is denser.
If the weather does behave, Monday's flight will see White Knight lift off from the runway in front of gathered crowds. SpaceShipOne will be carried by the craft to an altitude of 50,000ft (15km).

That should take an hour, after which SpaceShipOne will be unleashed into the skies.

It will glide very briefly before firing up its rocket for about 80 seconds. It will blast off to its target height of 100km in a vertical climb at Mach 3 (three times the speed of sound).

When it has reached its target altitude, the vehicle will change its wing configuration to allow for high drag, and will start to fall back towards Earth during which the pilot will be weightless.

At re-entry, the ship's special wing configuration will allow it to glide back down to Earth in about 20 minutes.

Back for more

The craft will escape Earth's atmosphere, but it will not be able to orbit the planet because of the speed it is going.

Going sub-orbital is cheaper and far less riskier, but it still means the pilot will have a stunning view of Earth.

Burt Rutan has been widely acclaimed for his pioneering achievements in the field of aviation.

White Knight and SpaceShipOne are thought to be revolutionary in many ways. SpaceShipOne's hybrid engines need special fuel that is safer, and both White Knight and the ship can be reused.

The fuel used, specially developed by US firm SpaceDev, is called hydroxy-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB). It is a mix of rubber and nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas.

It is not volatile and it is more eco-friendly than other space rocket fuels. Its by-products are water vapour, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen.

The conventional space shuttle's solid rocket boosters burn ammonium perchlorate and aluminium.


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/image...ground203b.jpg
SPACE FLIGHT ATTEMPT
SpaceShipOne boosts itself into the atmosphere
It aims for an altitude of 100km (62 miles)
Wings fold up to provide "feather" effect
Converts back to non-feathered glider

I had read on their site they were planning the launch for Monday the 21st.... Did they up the schedule? Or is that still planned as well. I know they have tons of people camping out at the airport to watch the takeoff/landing.

Wow. Civilians in non-government aircraft in space are a big thing, and on top of that, they do it in a much more environmentally-friendly way than the big guys. Rocket launches are a big source of pollution, and it's good to hear that a safer fuel will be used, as commercial rocket flights will undoubtedly become more popular and frequent after this. It's only a matter of time until we can all fulfill that childhood dream of living in a city on the moon, or just visiting.

Yes. Monday is the 21st.

Awesome, go these guys!

When I heard about the X Prize I thought nobody would be able to take it... but these guys just might do it.

Yeeeeeehaw! This needs to happen. It must! If people, regular people, people without fruit salad on their shirt pockets or security clearances start going into space then NASA's mission becomes a whole lot different.

I wonder how long until aluminum factories on the moon.

I was tempted to go see this, but it turned out I'm a bit low on cash. One of the other companies at what is now Mojave Spaceport (as of Thursday) is allowing people to stay in their hanger for this. I'm really wishing I could have done it!

VERY cool. I wonder what the government would do if a civilian came up with a way to get to the moon on their own? Or even just to go all the way into space and orbit the Earth? Would they allow it?

That's the kind of thing they're working on. However, for it to be useful, it has to be reusable like an airliner. That means "small steps", not one big one. Let's just get to LEO first, okay?

I've been watching these guys through their developement of WhiteKnight and SpaceShipOne, waiting for them to win the X-Prize. I've had my bets on them winning it for a while. I just can't wait for it! I'd go and watch if I wasn't a poor college student stuck half way across the country.

And keep in mind that this isn't an attempt at the X-Prize yet. Perhaps we'll each be available for the real one.

Is there a tv station covering this?

IIRC, there's lots of media been there all week. Can't say about a TV station.

Ok, thanks denim. :cool:

I'll ask if you like. What the hell, I'll ask anyway.

Appreciate it. :)

On Monday, I hope they broadcast this on TV somewhere. I hope CNN or somebody covers it. This would be something like seeing Chuck Yeager for our generation. I'd love to see it.

While this is great to bring on a more civilian role in space, I can only think how this might have a more problematic area in the future if civilians or other countries gain the ability to have space travelling vehicles that might can deliver payloads (e.g. their own ICBMs). Now we won't just have to deal with countries but with individuals, so each new feat will always bring on its own problematic areas. I suppose this is a good thing, but I don't really see any good use for it as a whole for our society. Sorry to be so negative..had a bit much to drink i suppose.

Nah, just shows you haven't been paying attention for the last forty+ years or so, no biggie. :D

SpaceShipOne
 

I am just writing this as I wait for the launch of SpaceShipOne. I don't know about you but I am pretty excited. This will go down in the aviation books along side the Wright Brothers, Chuck Yeager, Apollo 11 and the first Space Shuttle.

Can't wait to see it achieve its goal. And to think...this is all done privately...no government contracts, so no one is too blame and they can therefore take more risks and get more glory. Good for them.

If I win a lottery in the next 5 years, I am going for a ride in this ship. Why don't you come along and join me. :D

I think it's pretty neat stuff too.

apparently it's launched 34 mins ago or so...?

Anyways, we have another thread on it too, so I'll make one big happy thread about this neat and historical moment :)

heh... I'm with you there. I think it's great that people independently do these things. I'm eager to see how it goes today as well. Just hope it doesn't turn out like our millionaire who tries to fly around the world in a cold air balloon.

Good luck on the lottery.

Got some news..

Linky

earliest report after launch (pre-landing) is that he made it to 100 km - that's outer space!

Here's the SpaceShipOne project home page:

http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/

Hell yeah; they've got my support here. Hopefully everybody comes back safely.

Yes, he made it, and he's back on the ground. FOX, CNN, and MSNBC covered it. I SO wish I'd been there!!!

He made it! WOO HOO!
*Round of Cheers and Applause!*
:D:thumbsup::thumbsup::D

Now...if they can do it again in a two week time frame.....$10 million in the pocket. X-prize here they come.

The guy who designed it was telling the difference between a sonic and supersonic feather(?) upon re-entry into the earths atmosphere and how easy the difference was (re-entry). Dems some smart cookies those boys. Good for them.

I dont think this run counts, as it lacked the two other passengers or the weight equal to that for the prize.




I think

Yeah, they said up-front that this was not an X-prize flight.

Whatever, X-Prize or not, that is SO damn cool.

You betcha, Red Ryder! :D

Guess Jon Carmack and his Armadillo Airspace better hurry up. Not sure how to feel about Paul Allen funding most of this thing. Meh.

Let's just say there's another company I'm rooting for to beat Scaled Composites.

Just as a reminder of the perilous nature of this pioneering effort, the anomalies that occurred in the flight will cause the team to take a hard look at their technology before shooting for the prize.

And just for the record, the craft went faster than a speeding bullet - see below...

...

'Anomalies' in first private spaceflight revealed

12:27 22 June 04

NewScientist.com news service

The flight of the first private astronaut was not as perfect as it first appeared – a number of glitches occurred during the flight, some potentially catastrophic.

The revelations were made by Burt Rutan, designer of SpaceShipOne, which on Monday became the world's first privately funded craft to enter space. Until the team fully understands exactly what went wrong during the flight, he said, they will not go ahead with the pair of flights needed to claim the $10 million Ansari X-Prize.

Luckily, the glitches did not prevent a successful flight. But pilot Mike Melvill said that a partial failure of the system controlling the spacecraft's orientation could have been disastrous if it had occurred just slightly earlier in the flight,.

The problem struck at the end of the rocket engine's firing time of about 70 seconds, just as Melvill reached space. "As I came out of the atmosphere I no longer had any attitude control," Melvill told New Scientist and other reporters. "If that had happened earlier, I would never have made it and you all would be looking sad right now."


Big bang


Although that was the most serious anomaly, it was not the only frightening moment for the 62-year-old test pilot. There was also a loud bang behind him while the rocket engine was firing.

The team believes this was caused by aerodynamic stresses crumpling a composite material fairing around the engine nozzle. However, Dick Rutan, Burt's brother and a famed test pilot himself, said that fairing could have fallen off completely without endangering the craft.

Melvill's first frightening moment on the historic flight came at the very instant he flipped the switch to turn on the hybrid rocket motor. The craft suddenly lurched over 90° to the right, and as soon as he brought it back to level it then rolled 90° to the right.

"I was ready to hit the switch" to turn off the motor and abort the flight, he said, but the craft remained steady and he was able to continue and achieve the 100 kilometre altitude that officially makes him an astronaut. This difficulty appears unrelated to the later failure of attitude control, Melvill said.

Despite Melvill's 25 years of piloting experimental craft, he found even the normal operation of the rocketship alarming, as it travelled faster and higher than any previous privately-built craft.


Speeding bullet


SpaceShipOne was travelling "faster than an M-16 rifle bullet", Rutan said, about around 2400 km/h (1500 mph) or mach 3.2. As it reentered the atmosphere, falling like a badminton shuttlecock almost straight down, the rushing air sounded like a hurricane, said Melvill.

"Coming down is frightening, because of that roaring sound," he said. "You can really hear how that vehicle is being pounded."

Until the exact causes of the anomalies are understood, there will be no X-Prize attempt, Rutan said: "There's no way we would fly again without knowing the cause and being sure we had fixed it."

But despite the problems, the mood among the team remained extremely buoyant about their success. Melvill recounted how, as he became weightless, he opened a bag of M&M chocolates to watch them float around the cabin.

But it was the sublime view that affected him the most. "The sky was jet black, with light blue along the horizon - it was really an awesome sight," he said. "You really do get the feeling that you've touched the face of God."

i don't know if have more admiration for the designers or the pilot ...

RESPECT!

Such an amazing event for private industry aeronautics. I wish he had pictures to show off of his M&Ms and the Horizon he describes.

I don't see why the govt would try to prevent it. It would surely piss a lot of people off

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/timage...llage0623a.jpg

onward and upward!

Nice collage(sp?), Art.

Yes it is. :)

Thanks, ART.
I especially like the pic that says "SpaceShipOne...GovernmentZero." :D

Shit yeah.

yep...it's from www.coasttocoastam.com

UPDATE

Day dawns for X Prize space shot


11:21 29 September 04

NewScientist.com news service

A pioneering aviation company will attempt to rocket into space on Wednesday in a bid to win the $10 million Ansari X Prize.

The prize will go to the first non-governmental vehicle that can ferry three people to a height of 100 kilometres twice within two weeks. Successful in the second flight, currently scheduled for 4 October, would clinch the prize for the Scaled Composites team, based in Mojave, California.

Thousands of spectators are expected to descend on the airport of the small desert town of Mojave, where the flight is scheduled for takeoff at 0647 PDT (1447 BST). A jet plane called White Knight will carry rocket SpaceShipOne slung beneath it to a height of 14,330 metres (47,000 feet).

At about 0750 PDT (1550 BST), the jet will release SpaceShipOne. The rocket will fire its engine for about 90 seconds to shoot above 100 kilometres - the official start of space. Its crew will experience about three minutes of weightlessness and be able to see the curvature of the Earth before descending for about 20 minutes and gliding to a landing around 0830 PDT (1630 BST).

X Prize director Peter Diamandis set up the prize in 1996 in order to spur commercial spaceflight. He was inspired by the $25,000 Orteig Prize set up in 1919 that led to Charles Lindbergh's famed trans-Atlantic flight of 1927.


"Dream is alive"


Now, that vision is turning into a reality. On Monday, airline mogul Richard Branson announced he was licensing SpaceShipOne's technology and that a new company, Virgin Galactic, could begin tourist flights to space in 2007 for about $190,000 per ticket.

That momentum - and a sense of giddy camaraderie - could be felt at Mojave's airport on the eve of the flight. "The dream is alive," said a grinning airport employee.

Dan DeLong, chief engineer for XCOR Aerospace, a Mojave-based company not vying for the X Prize, says Scaled Composites is showing the general public that space tourism is not a flight of fancy.

"It's helping to kill the giggle factor," DeLong said, referring to people's reactions when he tells them he hopes to build a two-person rocket-powered plane to take people into space.


First civilian astronaut


By Tuesday evening, Scaled Composites had still not revealed who would be piloting either White Knight or SpaceShipOne. But several knowledgeable sources said veteran pilot Michael Melvill would probably take the helm.

Melvill became the first civilian astronaut when he flew the rocket above 100 km in June. That flight did not qualify for the X Prize, however, because it did not include two additional people, or their weight equivalent, as winning flights must.

Scaled Composite's team is led by aviation pioneer Burt Rutan, who designed the first airplane to fly non-stop around the world without refuelling in 1986. Funding, estimated at $20 million, is provided by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
............

It's a vision thing.
The kind of vision that is born by raising one's head skyward is a sort of birthright in us. The dream of flight is not bound by our atmosphere. Space is immediately accessible to our vision. We see it always there - above us. Brave attempts like this one never fail to inspire. Best of luck to this group of space pioneers!

Today's attempt ended in a spectacular roll.
Watching it live was breathtaking...

The pilot is now safe and back on earth.

Very good to hear they made it back safely!

Capitalism, Governments and everything else be damned... this is just impressive in a raw, awe-inspiring way. I've been reading about this project (and the X-prize) for many months now. It's sad, in some ways, that people are just so unimpressed with things these days. We're so used to "technological breakthroughs" that sometimes it's hard to sort out what's still really amazing.

Well, my friends, this is one of those things. Bask in the glory!

Space, here I comeeeee!!

*scrounges for change in the couch*

You were here, Art? I got lots of pictures, which I now have to go through. I definitely went past the limits of the camera I brought. :(

Just the old TV-conceit, denim.
I should have said "live on TV"

...looking forward to your documentation.

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....

Okay, I've created a site. It's not done yet, but y'all can look at it as I make it available. It's at this location. Looks like the reason I didn't see any good images of the good stuff is that it was either far away, requiring a lot of cropping to see, or I'd taking a movie clip of it, which doesn't show up in iPhoto. But you can see what I've got on that site.

Man, that spacecraft is just facinating to look at just sitting on the runway. A work of art in my mind.

Soooooo. The question is, would you be a passenger if you could?

Personally, I probably would. I *used* to fantasize about riding the Shuttle into orbit. Even after watching a couple launches. But then I saw one on re-entry on night. It's glide path taking it about 30 degrees above the horizon. The thing was travelling so fast and was so hot the plasma was bright enough for me to cast a shadow. That pretty much put an end to any desire I had to go up in one.

But SpaceShipOne is a different story, just a straight up shot and back down. Perhaps....

Oh - BTW - nice page Denim. I'm quite envious. :-)

-tb2

I expect its designers think that way too.

Yup, yessir, oui, si, uh huh, right now and don't stand in my way! If if blows up, I figure the end would come quick.

Thanks! Now I'm arranging to stay over and be there on Monday. Mmmm. My film camera is still not here, of course, but at least I now know what I can and can't do with the camera I've got. I bet that if I finished reading the manual, I might even learn a few more things I can do. It's possible, no? :D

I missed the party in June when they first tested SSO, but I'm damn well here now! I had to leave the party on Tuesday, but I'll be there for the entire thing Sunday/Monday.

One suggestion, for those who book via Travelocity: if you get "Total Trip" arrangements, they don't allow any changes at all, for any price. OTOH, I contacted the airline involved, and they were willing to make changes for a $100 surcharge. I won't do "Total Trip" again unless I'm certain to not need changes.

Awsome.


Nothing much more I need to say.

Here's a torrent link for the first X prize flight. Awsome.
You bet your ass I'm seeding...and so are a LOT of others.

http://tracker.degreez.net/X-Prize-flight-1.wmv.torrent

:thumbsup: Scaled Composites :thumbsup:

Uh, what is that link? It downloads a file, but I have no idea what the file is.

It's a torrent... use a bittorrent client to open it and download the movie. Like azureus. http://azureus.sourceforge.net/

Got the client. It's downloading the wmv now. I just hope my Mac can deal with it. :/ Meanwhile, it looks like Yet Another way to download things, this time without using all your available bandwidth. Not a bad idea, actually.

Catching it live on TV now - got an unofficial verification that they made the right altitude.

Coming down now!

They made it. Miles whatsisname on CNN just announced that the X-Prize judges gave their official count of the altitude reached: 368,000 feet, well over the requirement.

I watched it all. Had tears in my eyes, let me tell you.

Caught "Black Sky" on Discovery last night, a really great two-hour documentary of the whole SpaceShip One project, up to the first flight above 300,000 feet this summer. Discovery is broadcasting a re-edited and updated version of "Black Sky" this Thursdays night. If you're interested in this project, don't miss it.

Yeah man. Feels like the dawn of the real "Space Age"!

All I'm saying right now is that it was a wild thing to watch. I've unloaded my camera, but not yet gone over what I've got.

If anyone is interested, they are covering it extensively on discovery science channel.

Amazing human efforts, that folding wing is absolutely ingenious.

Well done

i was rooting on the guy who made quake to win, he deserves it!

The thing that really gets me about this project is that it's the way people thought space travel would happen, 60 and 70 years ago. The same story must have been written 1000 times in the old science fiction pulps of the '30s and '40s: Some wild-eyed professor would invent a speical rocket motor or rocket fuel and dream of going to orbit. He'd catch the interest of a visionary industrialist with a wild streak and, with a small band of dedicated mechanics and engineers, would build a rocket that would take mankind into space against all odds.

Well, with the national space programs of the '50s and '60s we all got convinced that space travel could never happen that way. Individuals could never do it; only vast bureaucracies funded by government could do what was necessary to get man into space. Individual initiative and creativity was behind the point; space travel was all about decisions made between bureaucratic committees and carried out by vast aerospace companies under heavy bureaucratic control. Space travel was too complicated for anything else to work.

That route to space travel gradually ground to a halt under the weight of its own bureaucracy, both here and in Russia. And once in a while I'd ask myself, where are the crazy billionaires when we need them? Where are the wild-eyed, big-dreaming maverick rocket scientists?

And that's why I had tears in my eyes when SpaceshipOne launched today. There was a crazy billionaire out there after all, willing to spend money on a big dream that might never turn a profit -- although it will. And there was a maverick airplane designer and his small band of dedicated compatriots who found an ingenious way to get into space on the cheap that no aerospace bureaucracy would ever dare. And you know, if the crazy billionaires and the maverick technologists are all out there after all, like the pulp writers used to think they were -- maybe _anything_ is possible.

Excellent response, Rodney. You said it all.
Thanks.

October 4th! What a great day!

I watched the event via streaming video at work. I was quite pleased a fairly stable 300K feed was provided. I looked to see who sponsored it to offer my gratitude, but couldn't find them.

The X-Prize Cup sounds okay. I suppose it's an attempt to keep those who lost interested in the race. I am really hesitant to use the term "lost" - Personally, I'm very appreciative of all who even made the attempt to build a private rocket to space. Truly a bold project and all deserve recognition who participated.

Regardless of the nobility and purpose of the X-Prize Cup, I believe the next real race is to orbit. That's a whole different ball game, and it may be that it's just plain unrealistic to expect a privately funded project to achieve it. But then again, "never say never" as they say...

Thanks for the heads-up on "Black Sky" Rodney!

-tb2

Government space travel, like most government programs, is a dead end. Nasa research is good but in terms of space development it just won't happen.

Its to political and pricey, and look how we gave up on the moon.

I'd love to see more of this, and soon. Lets just hope we can keep the lawyers out of it.

not meaning to rain on this parade, but....

while it is kinda cool that this project has managed what it has, the fact is that it would not have been possible, at any level, had it not been for the previous development of space programs on the basis of state funding.

just as the silicon valley would not have been possible without a significant regional infrastructure in place that was developed largely by the ability of stanford university had to accumulate/divert state weapons research monies during world war 2.

it seems that the myth of the entrepreneur presupposes a kind of amnesia when it comes to history. the opposition of entrepreneurial activity to infrastructure (which is in almost every case a public undertaking) is simply naieve. factually wrong and (worse) tiresome in its naievte.

You mean like powered flight?

Sure glad the government helped out with perhaps the most important invention of all time.

Good points, roachboy.

I'd say at this point, the highly risk-averse culture we find ourselves in and the extra restraints put on NASA in terms of public relations and budgetary requirements make the rapid advancement of man-in-space technology impossible now in that venue.

Curiously, we have a situation where the government can not fuel the populist vision of the possibility of space flight for anyone but the military/elite crowd. As an antidote to that, private enterprise is able to offer up the promise of low-cost and accessible voyages into the Final Frontier. It's a uniquely contemporary solution that is an undeniably a good and inspiring thing, I think.

Governments do not have the accountability, the desire, or the ability to bring anything to the masses efficiently. The post office is the closest thing and look how well they are doing these days. (I spent some time working IN a post office (not for) I'm surprised the mail ever gets anywhere). They can fund a great scientist and learn basic things, they can do things first (as the funds are great and the need of return does not exist) but it will always be more expensive and complex then is necessary.

Government can do such pioneering work well, but after its over its best for government to step out of the way.

it is exactly this general opposition that i was referring to, ustwo:

it says nothing historically, offers nothing in terms of understanding any aspect of the state and its functioning, and serves to occult the relationship between initiaves undertaken by Individuals or small groups (almost always the latter--rarely the former--no-one works in isolation) and infrastructure--which renders the notion of the entrepreneur totally afunctional.

creativity is a social act. in most places, you find a tight relation between conentration of funding--available publically through one or another state undertaking--and research/creativity.
it is america that is the exception.
your viewpoint would first presuppose that the american example is universal, when it is obviously not if you spend even a little time looking into the matter.
therefore, no series of platitudes about the state like those above can possibly account for this diversity of roles adopted by various states in sponsoring creative activity--the state is not a metphysical entity, not a category--its functions are diverse as its situation: but one thing that is common to all modern forms is that it makes activities accountable to the public, if the public mobilizes and brings pressure to bear on it. private wealth, private initiatives are those which have no mechanisms in place to assure accountability.

since the entire worldview that valorizes atomized private undertaking, and opposes then to the state, is also suspicious of public mobilization (the fifth column, the commies do that sort of thing--righteous americans sit alone watching tv) and even of the public itself (pace margaret thatcher for summing this up--"i look around me and i do not see society: i see individuals), i suspect that conversation along these lines might be difficult. but we'll see.

caveat: i am not collapsing creativity into state functioning--to do that would be to simply argue for the same binary i am trying to criticize from the opposite side. it would simply be the reverse of the position outlined above.
what i am saying is that entire logic is wrongheaded.

X-Prize won by Spaceship 1
 

It was almost a given....but history in the making none the less. My guess is......commercial flights within two years. Regular tourist runs within five.

http://www.rednova.com/news/stories/.../story003.html

MOJAVE, Calif. (AP) -- A stout, star-spangled rocket plane broke through the Earth's atmosphere to the edge of space Monday for the second time in five days, capturing a $10 million prize aimed at opening the final frontier to tourists.

The privately built SpaceShipOne took off underneath the belly of a mother plane that carried it about nine miles over the Mojave Desert. From there, SpaceShipOne fired its engine and streaked skyward at about three times the speed of sound on a half-hour flight that took it more than 62 miles high, generally considered the point where space begins.

SpaceShipOne - with test pilot Brian Binnie at the controls - then glided safely back to Earth.

"This is the true frontier of transportation," said Marion C. Blakey, head of the Federal Aviation Administration, who stood near the runway to watch the flight. "It feels a little bit like Kitty Hawk must have."

Binnie called it a "fantastic experience" - especially the sight of Earth from space. "There is darkness outside the windows," he said. "It's contrasted starkly by the bright pearl that is the greater California area, which is the view from up there."



The reward for the achievement is the $10 million Ansari X Prize, created in 1996 to kick-start the development of privately built rocket ships that could make spaceflight available to the public.

To win the prize, a spacecraft capable of carrying three people had to make two flights to an altitude just over 62 miles within two weeks. The goal was to show that the rocket that could go back and forth like a spaceliner.

About an hour after the spaceship landed, X Prize founder Peter Diamandis said the altitude was official, and declared SpaceShipOne's team the winner.

During the post-flight news conference, SpaceShipOne designer Burt Rutan took a few shots at the traditional aerospace community.

"The big guys, the Boeings, the Lockheeds and the naysaying people at Houston ... I think they are looking at each other now and saying, 'We're screwed,'" Rutan said.

Major funding for the prize came from the Ansari family of Dallas. Diamandis hoped the St. Louis-based Ansari X Prize would have the same effect on space travel as the Orteig Prize had on air travel more than 80 years ago. Charles Lindbergh claimed that $25,000 prize in 1927 after making his solo trans-Atlantic flight.

SpaceShipOne's effort - funded with more than $20 million from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen - has drawn high-level attention from the U.S. government, and comes at a time when others are preparing for space tourism.

Last week, Richard Branson, the British airline mogul and adventurer, announced that beginning in 2007, he will begin offering paying customers flights into space aboard. Branson said he had a deal, worth up to $25 million over 15 years, to license the technology that led to SpaceShipOne. Fares will start at more than $200,000.

NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe came to Mojave to watch last week's flight, and the FAA and members of the industry are in talks about regulatory aspects of space tourism, particularly the safety of people on the ground as well as that of the passengers.

Patti Grace Smith, associate administrator for the FAA's office of commercial space transportation, said the excitement around the X Prize has begun to draw the interest of the investment community as well.

"I'm starting to get calls from brokers. That's brand new," she said.

A crowd of thousands of space enthusiasts and reporters gathered to watch on Monday as SpaceShipOne - with a plump fuselage and spindly wings 16 1/2 feet across - ascended into calm, clear skies on a chilly morning that saw the dawn bathed in pink hues.

Binnie, a graduate of the Navy test pilot school, was at the controls when SpaceShipOne broke the sound barrier for the first time on a December test flight, which was marred when the craft hit the runway hard upon landing and veered into the brush, where a landing gear collapsed. This time his landing was flawless.

The first flight needed to win the X Prize took place on Sept. 29, with test pilot Michael Melvill at the controls. The spacecraft started corkscrewing as it neared the 62-mile mark, but Melvill managed to complete the flight safely.

Word of Binnie's accomplishment was relayed by NASA to the two men aboard the international space station, astronaut Mike Fincke and cosmonaut Gennady Padalka.

"Fantastic," Fincke said, adding that it was great to learn that for a while he and Gennady were not "the only ones off the planet."

Not to sound like a big nerd but damn, this is pretty exciting stuff. Pretty soon there's gonna be commercial space travel, which most of us probably wont be able to afford, but it's still a pretty big step in history. Good times.

This is awesome :)

Man, if I was a girl, I'd lay some leg on Burt Rutan.

This is the coolest space event since the first Mercury.

I vote that we all send charge-back invoices to NASA. Let's get a refund!

"Today we make history. Today the winners are the people of the Earth. Today we go to the stars."
----
Peter Diamandis (1961-) U.S. entrepreneur - aerospace engineer; trained medical doctor; chairman of the X Prize Foundation. Quote said after SpaceShipOne completed its second mission to space, winning the X Prize.
.........

It is great to see the impact of this sort of event and how it focuses our attention toward things that unite us in future-oriented and visionary ways...

...what was the middle part again?

-tb2

Okay, I've updated my web site to include the stuff I saw last Sunday and Monday. Enjoy.

This is true; federal funding helped build up the whole aerospace establishment and, for all I know, development of the lightweight composite materials that the spacecraft were made of. And government need for high-performance electronics in military and space applications helped make Silicon Valley possible.

But what the government does in such cases is fund basic research and development to meet certain of its specific needs. When those needs are met, government loses interest; but it leaves behind some highly trained people and piles of curious technologies that can be combined in interesting ways by private industry. Government has no incentive to do this, but private industry does (if it's smart).

Where private industry is succeeding here is operationally; NASA the organization has all the technology and smarts in the world, but is bogged down by bureaucracy and conflicting goals. Entrepreneurs don't bog; or if they do, they're not entrepreneurs for very long.

I've been fascinated by this project ever since I first heard of it a few years ago. I'll never forget my first look at photos of the interior of SpaceShipOne taken in flight on one of its earlier unpowered glide tests, and the shiver that went down my spine when the thought hit me - "This is a spacecraft you're looking at!"