(Gary Farber's home blog is Amygdala.)
UPDATE: 1st FLIGHT SUCCESSFUL!
Winds of Change.NET has covered this before, with pictures yet. Burt Rutan is ready.
A team funded by billionaire Paul Allen will attempt to launch the first nongovernmental manned flight into space June 21, the group said Wednesday. They hope to send SpaceShipOne, created by aviation designer Burt Rutan, to an altitude of 62 miles on a suborbital flight over the Mojave Desert.The rocket plane reached an altitude of about 40 miles during a test flight May 13.
[...]
If the attempt is successful, the SpaceShipOne team will compete for the Ansari X Prize, a competition in which $10 million goes to the first reusable rocket able to carry three people into space on a suborbital flight, return them safely to Earth and repeat the feat within two weeks with the same vehicle.
[...]This month's attempt will involve an 80-second rocket firing that will accelerate the craft to Mach 3. It will then coast to the target altitude before falling back to Earth. The pilot will experience weightlessness for more than three minutes. The glide back to the ground will take 15 to 20 minutes.
I wanna ride! I wanna ride! But mostly I want this and the succeeding flights to go without a hitch.
Of course, after they do a later orbital flight, and the giant diamond-powered laser opens up, we'll all be sorry. But that's another story.
Read The Rest Scale: 1.5 out of 5.
WINDS' COVERAGE:
- April 19/03: Private Manned Spaceplane Unveiled as the craft makes its first test flight.
- Dec 18/03: SpaceShipOne breaks Mach One in a test flight.
- Juune 8/04: The system prepares for its first space flight. Go, SpaceShipOne, Go!
- June 21/04: First full flight successful!
- Sept 29/04: SpaceShipOne makes its first official X-Prize flight, and succeeds. That flight had some scary moments, though.
- Oct 5/04: Mission Accomplished! SpaceshipOne wins the X-Prize, and breaks the X-15's manned altitude record for an aircraft.
All Hail!
Gogogo!
All the best to the Team and to Burt and thanks to Paul Allen for being a visionary capitalist
Onward to the Stars!
Go Spaceship One! Thanks Burt Rutan - for letting us dream again.
Bon chance, Burt Rutan and your colleagues! We await news of continuing success in all your endeavors to finally move manned spaceflight past bureaucratic morasses, political infighting, and budget impasses...and to the stars, where it--and we--belong!! Best of luck and all of our heartfelt wishes...and remember, Zephram Cochran's legacy awaits! (We'll be anxiously awaiting your soon-to-be announced discovery on applying matter/anti-matter explosive energy into near-warp propulsion.) Thank goodness that in all this mess called the beginning of Earth's 21st Century, there are those who can still see clearly and reach for the stars. Mankind's destiny awaits you...so, "Make It So."