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Mike Melvill Chosen To Fly SpaceShipOne
ansimon writes "Mike Melvill is chosen to fly SpaceShipOne to the outer limits of this rock that we call earth. Mike will be the first to earn his astronaut wings with a privately-developed aeroplane/rocket. A new era of space exploration is about to begin! Godspeed and come back safe, so the rest of us can go too..."
Share value of Mike's life insurance company plummeted.
... or the first person to get a privately funded cremation in outer space... you know, whatever floats his boat.
does he run Linux?
This is really cool.
I have to admit I'd rather be Captain of a
large ship rather than pilot of a small
tin can though...
Saving up for my first starship, which I suppose
will be available in the next 40 years or so,
around the time I'll be having my first mid-life
crisis (or for me, mid-life crisis'es...)
We need to start NOW if we want to have 40 million
people on the moon by 2371...
MALCOLM SCOTT CARPENTER
...Mike Melvill
ALAN SHEPARD
JOHN GLENN
BUZZ ALDRIN
NEIL ARMSTRONG
SpaceShipOne will not only be making history because they will be breaking the tradition that only governments have the ability to get into space. They will also be breaking the tradition that only people with dramatic-sounding names get to perform important space-exploration milestones.
Fly, SpaceShipOne, fly! Fly for the drably-named of the world! For all the "I'm sorry, what's your name again"s of the world! For everyone named "Morton"! You represent all of us.
I must have just missed the longer straw, Mike _always_ gets to test things before me
aw, shucks
Error 407 - No creative sig found
pepperoni and sausage
/obvious?
"So this is what it feels like
I wonder if he's got the weight allowance to bring a towel, just in case...
---
Play Six Pack Man. I
Well, I for one, am against paving The Waqy. What a sad day it is when people feel the need to pave over the poor innocent Waqy for the sake of progress. Does not The Waqy feel pain? Would you not defend the rights of The Waqy as your own? Think about it.
Show me on the doll where his noodly appendage touched you.
to be seen by the Vulcans in our solar system. This will usher in a new era of interstellar space travel. It will also give us new plotlines for Star Trek: Enterprise.
> I for one welcome our new.....
AHA!, thought you could sneak that one by did you?
Advanced users are users too!
Isn't it obvious? None of the flights will be successful, because of govenment sabotage. The sabotage will result in deaths of not only the pilots, but also of people on the ground. This will cause public outrage, and laws will be passed preventing spaceflight by anyone other than the government.
All this is to protect the people from finding out about the visitors.
wow, that is pretty amazing, i didn't realize test pilots even lived that long.
The "Insert Quote Here" line is almost as predictable as inserting an actual quote.
My only question is if he's going to be playing "Magic Carpet Ride" on his way into space. :)
cheese logs keep my wang warm at night.
I wonder whether he answered yes or no.
Liberals call everyone Nazis yet they are the closest thing to it.
Take off every 'SpaceShipOne'!
You know what you doing.
Move 'SpaceShipOne'!
For great history!
Or, derived from Wikipedia's freeform translation:
We have no time to lose. It's up to him.
All our hope for the future is in his hands.
Godspeed, SpaceShipOne pilot!
Getting into space isn't exactly reaching the stars, but it's the first step on the journey.
I'd rather not reach the stars.. I hear it's very warm there.
Or maybe "Spirit in the Sky".
Yeah, I caught it. Mine was "Apollo 13".
From the Launch Event FAQ:
Q: Can we fly a commercial flight to Mojave?
A: No, Mojave has no commercial airline service.
Doh.
"Never put off for tomorrow what can be avoided altogether"
Paul Allen: OK, the spaceship is ready, wanna try it?
Burt Rutan (Very nervous as he looks at the spaceship): I'm not gonna try it, you try it first.
Paul: Oh, come on. Just try it.
Burt: No way, You try it.
Paul: Hey, let's get Mikey - he'll try anything.
Burt: Hey Mikey! (Whispers in Mike Melville's ear)
(Mike gets into SpaceShipOne and flies into space)
Paul and Burt: He likes it!
-hadohk
The Orion drive is our only hope.
Mike Melville is the ONLY member of the team who doesn't have to prepare two speeches....
And how does Godspeed compare to lightspeed?
Very simple.
Lightspeed: "SHIT, that's fast!"
Godspeed: "HOLY SHIT, that's fast!"
...after finding out his uniform has a red shirt.
--
What would Bill Clinton do?
OK, its only a short flight, so it doesnt give us all much time to get changed into them.
If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done?
Who knew VH1 could be so prescient?
I'm in the hole of the broadband donut.