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SpaceShipOne Flight Not as Perfect as it Seemed

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the still-higher-than-my-car-can-get dept.

ArbiterOne writes "SpaceShipOne's flight wasn't as perfect as it seemed, according to Burt Rutan and New Scientist. Apparently, at one point in the descent, the pilot completely lost attitude control. According to him, "If that had happened earlier, I would never have made it and you all would be looking sad right now." Could this pose some problems for the X-Prize contender?"

4 of 609 comments (clear)

  1. This says quite a bit about... by Dagny+Taggert · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...the pilot's skill. However, this is to be expected with any prototype. It's always the early pioneers who take the risks; I guarantee that Rutan and crew are working on fixing the attitude problem as we speak. And, knowing those guys, the next flight will be perfect.

    --
    Don't be a looter...and yes, I know that it's spelled with an "A" instead of an "E".
  2. Still 62% willing to fly? by johannesg · · Score: 5, Interesting
    The poll indicates 62% of the /. crowd would happily fly in that ship on monday. It would be interesting to repeat the poll now and see if it is still this high.

    And despite this: it *is* rocket science, and an experimental vehicle to boot. It isn't surprising there are some problems. Let's all be happy the pilot actually survived.

  3. Nice to see them so honest by mykepredko · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is something that has always impressed me with Rutan; he has always been pretty honest with regards to the performance and safety of his designs.

    He could have just as easily hid the issues and blamed the time to fix the problem on the FAA or a vendor (like the rocket motor supplier).

    The attitude changes on motor light are significant problems that will have to be addressed although I wonder if it is due to center of gravity changes caused by the fully fueled motor. The big bang and deformed panel is a potentially bigger problem and may require significant changes to the structure.

    myke

    --
    Mimetics Inc. Twitter
  4. Re:It should have been expected by MrBlue+VT · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Actually, it's kind of funny that they encountered this issue. John Carmack predicted it last week in his weekly update (second to last paragraph):

    Speaking of next week... I think Space Ship One has good odds of success in the single-person-to-100km flight. I only see two real issues they may hit: The extended burn above the atmosphere may run into some control issues as the nozzle ablates, which will be hard to correct with only cold gas attitude jets. This would be a fairly benign failure, with the pilot just shutting off the main engine if he can't hold the trajectory.