SpaceShipOne launched again this morning, making its first official X-Prize flight. Hobbyspace has the key links, and Transterrestrial Musings has some thoughts and analysis. That continued roll on ascent is making these flights interesting in a "uh-oh" sort of way. Branson's Virgin Galactic space airline may have to delay its plans if they can't fix this, but the next flight must be within 2 weeks in order to win the $10 million X-Prize so we'll know the score pretty quickly. Space.com has pictures, reports, and more.
In related news, I regret to report that Rutan's Canadian competitor The DaVinci Project has put the planned Oct. 2 launch of its Wildfire rocket on hold, but they still intend to go for it reasonably soon. Gotta say, launching a rocket from a balloon is definitely thinking outside the box.
Even if DaVinci misses the X-Prize, however, all is not lost. Robert Bigelow is now offering America's Space Prize, a $50 million race to build an orbital vehicle capable of carrying up to seven astronauts to an orbital outpost by the end of the decade.
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 - but see above.
- Oct 5/04: Mission Accomplished! SpaceshipOne wins the X-Prize, and breaks the X-15's manned altitude record for an aircraft.
The pilot said he might have accidently tromped on a rudder pedal or something when he got so busy at the peak of the thrust phase. The controls on that ship are of the KISS variety, old cable and pulley stuff.
The New York Times story illustrates the level of sloppiness we have come to expect of the MSM:
"It then fired its rocket and went into space to an unofficial height of about 330,000 feet above earth, well beyond 100 kilometers."
Last I checked, 100 km was 62 miles, and 330000/5280 was real close to 62 miles.
Note that Bigelow isn't putting up the full $50 million. He's putting up half, and inviting others to help fill the other half.
Also note that the energy and structure required for escape velocity to reach orbit, and protection for return, make this goal around ten times more difficult to perform than the X-prize requirements.
A prize of $500 million would be more in line with the difficulties involved.
SpaceShipOne is an awesome private-sector accomplishment. However, I would note that between 1968 and 1972 the United States landed six crewed spacecrafts on the surface of the moon. If we had been waiting around for an entreprenurial genius to do this feat, we would still be waiting.
I think that a society like ours needs to celebrate common endeavors as well as the private; we need both. I hear talk about the "ownership society" and I am reminded that, as a citizen, I am part owner of Apollo's achievement. The total cost of the Apollo missions was somewhere around $25 billion in 1969 ($126 billion today). It is therefore analogous to our Iraq investment. However, the projected dividends of the Iraq mission are far more sketchy. In 30 years or so, I don't think I will be acknowledging pride in my partial ownersip of the Iraqi War.