Slashdot Mirror
X Prize Launch At Mojave Spaceport [updated: success!]
knovis writes "The Ansari X Prize is being attempted at this moment: 9:30am EST. Bert Rutan and Paul Allen's Scaled Composites is preparing to make the first of 2 launches necessary. For the uninitiated, the X-Prize is a $10M prize available to the first entirely privately funded organization that creates a vehicle that travels to 100km above the earth's surface (low earth orbit) twice within 2 weeks. IIRC, SpaceShipOne is planning 3 flights for that 2 week period, for safety. Best of luck to Private Spaceflight. Did anyone else notice that Virgin Galactic has just been launched?"
Project Zen writes "MSNBC has an article about how the seats won't be filled with people but mementos of the crew." Several readers sent links to CNN's story on the flight, and space.com's continuing coverage, including by webcam; NASA TV also has an eye on the launch. (Watch this space for updates.) Update: 09/29 15:57 GMT by T : Disconnect writes "As reported all over, SpaceShipOne successfully flew its first X-Prize flight attempt. As of now (11:45:40EST) the officials have not cleared the flight as successful, but it's looking good."
Our hopes and prayers go with you.
I hope they found a good way to tie all those momentos down. It would be a shame if flying slide-rules created a problem during the launch.
Please lock your seat back trays in the upright positions...
CNN is covering it, not sure how great the video will be. but it appears it was delayed due to high wind. The White Knight just took off about 5 minutes ago. give them another hour or so before they actually fire the rockets in SpaceShipOne.
Let's just hope Mike does ok with this, i'd hate to see someone die on an absolutely amazing thing these guys are doing. Granted I think they'll do ok but I am still worried about the guy, especially his family.
Go Mike GO!
Kyle
http://www.unlogikal.net/
White Knight took off a little under 5 minutes ago, but it has to reach an altitude of 48,000 feet before detaching from SpaceShipOne. The NASA TV coverage says that will take about an hour.
I would consider skipping class for this but I have a test.
Although I am unable to conceive of the type of spacefaring mishap which could result in a mere broken leg...
I jest, but good luck.
Blearf. Blearf, I say.
100 km is not low earth orbit. It's just the lower boundary for being declared an astronaut.
"Wow. Now THAT'S a lot of angry Indians." - Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer
There's a webcast link from the people actually sponsoring it (who presumably know more than the normal press:
XPrize.Org
I love vegetarians - some of my favorite foods are vegetarians.
...at least here in the UK. The last flight I was able to make plans in advance to see it live, but this is the first I've heard about this one - and it's the real thing!
Still, very best of luck to everyone involved - proof that some folk still have the "Right Stuff".
This is where the serious fun begins.
Mplayer will give me audio only. Realplayer doesn't even try. I've been watching under VMWare to see it at all.
Given that the webcast is fscking useless, the best coverage I've dug up so far is that by "Spaceflight Now": http://spaceflightnow.com/ss1/status.html
The BBC stream seems totally broken and unreliable but the Nasa TV one is fine.
Real Media
Real Media high quality
Windows Media
Many more...
until it got /.'ed to hell. What sort of story will we tell our grandchildren?
"Yeah... I remember when the first commercial space launch occured. I was sitting in front of an idle browser window..."
What is music when you despise all sound?
Best of luck. hopefully by the time I'm having my midlife crisis, I can afford a trip up there too.
This is really historic and very exciting. This is capitalism, pioneering and ballsiness at its best. All the stuff that made America great in the past. Nice to see it in the present.
Blaze a trail to the New World
Its Burt not Bert and Scaled Composites is Burt's company not Burt's and Paul Allen's. Paul Allen is just funding this particular project. Scaled has done many other interesting projects over the years.
So if it takes off 20 minutes late, will the launch be 20 minutes late, or can it climb faster?
Obvious, but needs pointing out...
Up and Down - still impressive, what were the Virgin tickets $100,000?
-paul
That's the same broadcast as Nasa tv, so we have redundant web casts of the same footage.
>
My hopes go with you. There are no prayers to speak of from me for you or anyone or anything.
-I am an elective eunuch.
I gotta say those sideburns look like they're going to eat Rutan's face. Why do I get this vibe like he's going to get in on some wacky adventures with Jim Garner and Angel in the Rockford Files?
What is music when you despise all sound?
I'm amazed how elegant this space craft is. Granted, the NASA flights were about half a century ago. And these guys have a lot more to work with. But it seems to me like they are doing an amazing job! Think of the NASA budget and manpower as compared to these guys. They have yet to acomplish all that the space program has accomplished - but dang are they doing a good job. Every time I see the separate space crafts and how elegantly they maneuver... I'm just impressed. I think about the old rockets just dropping pieces into the ocean. But this two staged design that flies to altitude and then separates into to pilotable vehicles seems very well thought out.
Slashdot Syndrome: the sudden, extreme urge to correct someone in order to validate one's self.
Dude, it is the second flight, if it was the first it would be the MAIDEN flight, it's called Spaceship One and being suborbital it cannot burn up on re-entry. Read up.
I just heard this story on Howard Sterns radio show on the way home from school. Unfortunately, they didn't seem too enthusiastic about it. If this reflects the public opinion of America, it isn't going to get very far.
Upgrade to xp, or osx if you're not a piss poor fat pizza eating basement dwelling weenie.
What do you upgrade to if you are a piss poor fat pizza eating basement dwelling weenie?
I doubt it's the Madden flight. John Madden has a fear of flying. Unless they tricked him and put rocket boosters on his Madden bus. Sounds like a new game idea for EA.
Rampant Ninja related crimes these days...Whitehouse is not the exception
Are they nuts?? That craft wasn't built to support the weight of John Madden!!
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
Branding the X-Prize at the (relative) last minute, post-establishment, has always seemed like a real second-hander move to me.
Once upon a time, I was truly excited and idealistic about the X-Prize. Now that it's the Ansari X Prize, and the Microsoft billionaire's project is going to win, it feels a bit "so what?"... it seems like Ansari and Allen could have just teamed up and accomplished the same thing - only, I guess, there wouldn't be as much publicity that way (and maybe no subsequent deals with Virgin). But the "contest" aspect now rings false and feels extraneous.
How did they get John Madden in there? a)he won't fly, and b) he's way over the 400lb cargo requirement...
If protectionist programmers have their way, it will be much more difficult for talented entrepreneurs like Anousheh Ansari to get their chance to immigrate and make it big in the good old USA.
The belief that something (in this case God) does not exist because of a lack of sufficient evidence isn't exactly the scientific method, champ.
But did anyone happen to notice that Ms. Ansari is teh hot?
Duh I'm a tard.....
The Madden voyage? He's not riding up with them... and why would they bring up a really fat Ex-football player?
oh you mean Maiden voyage? sorry you are retarted there also, they LAUNCHED back in June and achieved space making the pilot the first commercial astronaut.
I guess cince you know absolutely nothing and are probably 12-13 from your horrific speeling we will give you some slack.
Hey kid, learn to spell, press preview, and read and learn before you post.
when you make crap up, you look like a fool.
Well with Virgin Galactic aparently more than just vapor, maybe the days of comercial spaceflight really are just arround the corner...
Then the question: Will I be able to move to the Moon before I die of old age?
"So, will you be returning the U-Haul XR-2150 to Earth, or will it be a one-way move? Also, please remember to fill the LOX tanks before dropping it off at the agency or you WILL be chaged a flat rate of $500,000 wether they are empty or not."
A Call For A New Slashdot Moderation Level!
I'm surprised this flight is eligible for the X-Prize, since it is only carrying 1 person. Don't the X-Prize rules state there must be 3 people on board? There is more to carrying out a flight for three people than just boosting their weight into orbit. There are safety concerns as well. I thought the goal of the X-Prize was providing safe commercial space travel, not just space travel that a stunt pilot is willing to risk.
I am proud to announce that following the success of the X-Prize initiative, I will be rewarding a Y-Prize for the further development of space travel. To win, you must successfully and safely trasport a person to mars and bring them back alive. Private individual entries only, please. And the prize: one HUNDRED dollars. Heck, I'll make it American dollars instead of Canadian.
Use the Firehose to mod down Second Life stories!
Hmm... Lets hope it doesn't need military Helicopters with long polls to catch it when it re-enters the atmosphere!
Visit London Scalextric Club
Most of O'Keefe's speech seemed to be about Bush's Mars proposal and how SSO is here because NASA let it be? A whole lotta credit-grabbing.
Yes, I'm sure some of the technology used in WK/SSO could be traced to some NASA programs, but, please, credit where due. This is an original effort, from a true innovator who has been developing original fuselage fabrication technology for thirty years.
Big Daddy, Johnny, Burp, Aunt Zelda, Scott, Slurp, Big Momma
This NASA feed is terrible. For a while they were showing the shot of SSO in space, where it only stays for three minutes. But they've been showing it for half an hour now and to make it worse they've added a "Live" label which is wrong. SSO hasn't even left White Knight yet!
All of our thoughts are with you.
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
He just reared back and fired that one in there! Someone in the secondary just got burned!
And why won't they shut the fuck up and go to into space already?
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Are you an idiot?
This is the *second* run for SpaceShipOne. The first one went off without a hitch (apart from a software glytch, and a loud bang - later discovered to be a buckled bit of fairing on the rear of the jet, i.e. not a showstopper)
From what I hear, they'll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.
erh...
OH! Mo-jave Spaceport! My bad.....
Bryan R.
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, or $12.50 as seen on eBay.....
Have to say I'm impressed with the quality of this webfeed...
I am concerned about any program, any piece of hardware, any treaty, any law that treats me as a consumer, not a citizen
get ready
Hey kid, learn to spell, press preview, and read and learn before you post.
So, pot, how's that kettle looking?
Scaled Composite built SpaceShip One but the spacecraft is not owned by them, it is payed for and owned by American Mojave Aerospace Ventures, which is owned by Burt Rutan and Paul Allen.
stay...on....target...
got to pull up...
Over!
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Lost stability... cut then engines for safety... looks like a failure folks.
Any ideas about what happened right after the engines fired? It looked like it was falling, and then stablized....
I can only hope it's ok, I thought that it was going to crash for a few...
Tibbon
tibbon.com
yeah man. I am so glad! Congrats 338 thousand feet.
It looked for a second there that there was going to be a disaster, it started rolling really fast ...
...
Also, seems like they didn't get the altitude they wanted
- sigs are for wimps.
See Flying to Orbit, with an update for SpaceShipOne
YOU SPIN ME ROUND ROUND BABBY
Commentary on NASA TV seems to have altitude and it made it, it was rolling horribly on the way up... horrifying to watch.
So says the webcase.
"Uh oh."
--Michael Smith, Challenger pilot
328,000 ft. Needed 320,000 ft for X-Prize.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
They are essentially recreating the X-15 experiments made in the early sixties.
e r.html
.com boom.
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/x15/cov
Those missions a rocket plane would detach from a B-52 and fly to suborbit and then glide back to earth and land like a plane.
What is really important is that resently there was an article about there being more billionaire's in the United States then there ever was in the history of the United States.
http://www.fool.com/News/mft/2004/mft04092701.htm
And now Paul Allen and Burt Rutan are about to prove (I hope!) that these rich kids can have their very own space program for a mere $20 million. Which hopefully will lead to an increase in aerospace start-ups and maybe a boom in aerospace technology similar to the
I hope this happens because not only will we finaly start seeing the promises made during the space race come to fruitation, but we can also learn from our past mistakes made during the dot com era and make a shit load of money by bailling out when the getin's good.
It's going to take a few years for this to start, Virgin is (assuming it's true and not a publicity stunt it's libel to be) not planning launches for another three years. That's time enough for everyone to change their major's and hit the books for the next big thing.
Of course if spaceshipone crashes and burns you can just forget about what I just said.
>
Wow did you see that thing spinning, is the pilot even in control yet?
Got Code?
Although in fairness this link says that the ISS has been orbiting around 250 miles up. I think I heard it called Low Earth Orbit, but the graph on the page indicates it's falling. Bil Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything comments that the edge of the atmosphere isn't that well defined, illustrating it that the ISS is falling a few thousand yards per week because of something up there equivalent to air resistance.
Take care.
love Ken.
343,000 feet accomplished just a minute ago. SpaceShipOne's on the way down now.
Sweeeeeet....
What does it mean to wake out of a dream
and be wearing someone else's shorts?
BNL, Born on a Pirate Ship (1998)
It sure looked like a wild ride. Back in glide mode now, on the way down.
Spaceship One is going up 100km. What happens when you have something sitting a tiny amount above the Earth's surface and let it go? It drops like a rock. To stay up it has to move really fast horizontally, so that by the time it falls to the ground the ground is already gone from under it. If it keeps doing this it ends up circling around the planet.
The orbital speed is in the ballpark of 17000 mph, which these guys are not even close to, and is the main reason for skepticism of cheap access to space. It's not going to the height of space that is hard-- managing to get to 17000 mph is the hard part, and the X-prize is not addressing it. Something tells me that various commercial launch systems like Delta, Soyuz, Arianne, etc. are already as cheap as it gets, and the problem does not get easier no matter how you slice it.
Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
The CNN interviewer kept interjecting nonsense, so I muted the TV and listened to the web feed, where they didn't feel the need to talk when they had nothing to say.
Language students: Don't try to learn English here. This ain't it.
Looks pretty smooth now. But what if the wings hadn't locked (in the transformation back into an airplane)? Is there a backup plan? Can you bail out of an airplane at 6 grillion feet per second?
Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by mere idiocy.
The SS1 is on its glide approach back to mohjave desert. Congrats guys!
think before you write, it'll save me moderator points.
On the topic of certification, "It's not rocket science."
errr......
There are several numbers flying around Here is the blurb from CNN.com
SpaceShipOne is on its way back from a wild ride into suborbital space. The craft went into a fast roll shortly after the rockets fired. Pilot Mike Melvill shut off the engines and kept going up, folding the wings into a "feather" position to steady the ship. Radar showed the flight reached 358,000 feet -- well above the 62.5 miles needed for the Ansari X Prize.
when asked how the altitiude of 100k+ was verified to the satisfaction od the x-prize organisers, the commentator replied "It's not rocket science".
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
Comment removed based on user account deletion
As excited as I am about SS1, this is *NOT* *NEAR* leo - come *on*, 100k klicks is 60 miles or so, and there's still *way* too much atmosphere for orbit, nor do they come anywhere *near* orbital velocity.
mark "still want to buy my ticket on PanAm
to the Moon three years ago...."
...just need to clear the Monday hurtle.... ...I'd love to see them do a flight with 3 people actually on board...
Power Corrupts,Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, leaving one person(group)in charge is absolutely corrupt.
Is it possible that the camera made it roll?
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
For sentimental reasons, we should probably rename SpaceShipOne to "The Doohan" -- in honor of James Doohan. Before he passes into oblivion, he would certainly feel honored that the first prototype of a commercial spacecraft is named after him.
There is always the remote possibility that the winner of the space prize will evolve, 100 years later, into a real starship.
Did anyone notice this?
I was watching the live feed, and saw the plane spin wildly before he cut off the engine.
The SpaceFlightNow status update page said "The craft is in a major tumble!". Several minutes after that, it was 'corrected' to : "The craft is in a major roll!"
I think they still have some issues with the aerodynamics at this speed.
Not that this will affect them in their bid in the race. They seem to be well poised to win.
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
was a real "screw up" eh??
Let him land it then carry on with the 'show'.
It beats the alternative, i.e. believing in something despite a lack of evidence.
WHAT THIS MEANS is that I get to visit space in my lifetime, for the cost of a nice round the world cruise.
Was watching the live webcast, and there was a point during the ascent where SpaceShipOne went into a series of barrel rolls on the way up - and it looked (to my uneducated eyes) like the pilot lost control of the craft for a bit.
In the descent SpaceShipOne was rolling left to right quite a bit, and there was vibration clearly visible in the winglets when it went into shuttlecock mode.
I'm watching to see how the landing goes. Fingers crossed none of the landing gear was damaged.
My mind is just spinning at the implications of this flight - and the fact that I was able to watch it live, via the internet. With live video from Spaceship 1 no less. I think I have a better understanding of how people felt in '69 w/Armstrong.
1509 GMT (11:09 a.m. EDT)
DROP! SpaceShipOne has been released from the White Knight mothership.
1510 GMT (11:10 a.m. EDT)
IGNITION! SpaceShipOne is firing to space in pursuit of the $10 million Ansari X Priz
1512 GMT (11:12 a.m. EDT)
Altitude is 250,000 feet. Craft appears to be in a tumble from the tracking cameras.
1512 GMT (11:12 a.m. EDT)
Altitude achieved was 330,000 feet, which was needed for the X Prize.
1514 GMT (11:14 a.m. EDT)
The ship appears in a much smoother orientation following the major roll experienced at the end of the burn. The wings have feathered for the descent.
1516 GMT (11:16 a.m. EDT)
The descent continues. SpaceShipOne looks to be under good control as the wings are folded back down and locked for a powerless glide to landing on the runway.
1518 GMT (11:18 a.m. EDT)
SpaceShipOne is descending through 35,000 feet and cleared for landi
More here
The NASA feed is great. I hate MS however the WMP in full screen mode was looking quite good. Of course you had to step back a few feet. That spin was frightning. ~n
Here's more on the White Knight craft. An important but much overlooked part of the proceedings. http://science.howstuffworks.com/spaceshipone3.htm
http://www.x-plane.org/Detailed/3881.shtml
*phew* And touchdown! SpaceShipOne has made it down ok. Now they've got two weeks to do it again.
Did you see how fast SS1 can put down its gear?
That roll on ascent was scary...
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
That was beautiful! Can't wait to take a ride in one!
I am concerned about any program, any piece of hardware, any treaty, any law that treats me as a consumer, not a citizen
remember that the moon has an altitude or rests about 242,000 miles from earth.
These guys are going 100km....
Seems rather insignificant now doesn't it ?
Touchdown!!! Good job Mike! ~n
SpaceShipOne has landed safely, bringing Mike Melvill back to Earth after a seemingly frightening flight that experienced a major roll during the engine firing!!!
More info here
I love these guys.
looks like a clean landing... reusable equipment and all.
Who needs fancy calculations? Geostationary orbit, which takes 24 hours and thus appears stationary from someone on earth, is 22,300 miles or so (I have forgotten it in km). Low earth orbit, 200 miles, takes about 90 minutes. You can see that even moving the orbit the final 200 miles to the surface is not much of a change, only 1%, so maybe an orbit at sea level would only last 89 minutes. Of course the atmosphere might have something to say about the feasibility.
Infuriate left and right
"Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
Either way, it worked. The spacecraft has landed successfully.
Kinetic stupidity has a new brand leader: Allen Zadr.
Spaceship One is safely on the ground and appears to have exceeded its altitude target. Well done, pilot Mike Melville! {J}
it was INTENTIONAL you fartwad.
get a life, PLEASE! sarcasim is wasted on grammar nazzies (yerp I spult it dat way just fer you!)
Well, it landed safely. (Watched the NASA TV stream.) There was a serious roll, or twirling as I would put it, soon after the rocket went off. That was bad for the heart, it was scary to say the least. After a while the rolling slowed down and stabilized. Whew! I hope they can iron out that twirling problem before the next flight.
I'm kinda curious if everybody here is really thinking of the long-term consequences of space tourism. Tourists have a tendancy to show up and be places they really shouldn't (like the inside of a military base, the floor of the NYSE, in a swamp fishing next to lanuch pad 49A of KSC, or even wandering around aimlessly in Antarctica).
There are enough people that somehow make it on their own to the South Pole that the South Pole Research Station has established policies on how to deal with them, including a no refueling policy for airplanes that get stuck down there. This is only going to get worse over time.
Dispite the best intentions of everybody involved, I see little to stop wandering idiots from going to Mars now and writing their initials on the Viking 1 & 2 probes, or picking up as souviners pieces of the Mars Rover craft. It is just a matter of time before they show up there on their own.
Wouldn't it be a blast if the first people on Mars weren't an organized governmental program, but rather somebody with a lawn chair, a bunch of bottles of oxygen, and a space suit landing their instead? Well, maybe a little bit more stuff than that, but certainly not a full-blown Apollo style landing and return military mission. Once a substantial number of LEO space stations are up and running, I don't see how any governmental agency is going to be able to stop anybody from sneaking up some extra rocket boosters and pushing out further from the Earth.
Basically, the clock is ticking for NASA to get off their hind end and get to Mars first, if they really want to be there. I'll also say that if a private group is the first to land on Mars, the entire justification for having NASA will have expired and they should be disbanded as an agency altogether.
Looks like R2D2 was able to fix things in time...
They're down! :) The two week clock is now ticking... It'll be interesting to see if the roll at the end of the ascent will affect the timing of the second flight.
I must say, what an impressive piece of aeronautical engineering. Why haven't we been doing it like this for longer? Makes the shuttle seem so unsubtle. :)
obviously you haven't been reading slashdot regularly... ;^)
A job?
For all involved, I will say the Shepherd's prayer... Alan Shepherd, that is. Please Lord, let us not screw up.
Cliff Claven
K.E.G. Party Chairman
Founding Leader of: Koncerned for Egalitarin Governance
Really gives a backyard, do-it-yourself feel to the whole event. :)
I am concerned about any program, any piece of hardware, any treaty, any law that treats me as a consumer, not a citizen
Yes, it is. The scientific method relies heavily on Occam's razor, which is the general principle that explanations should be as simple as possible. To assume that the Universe just appeared out of nothing is simpler than assuming that a Creator appeared out of nothing and then created the Universe.
From spaceflightnow.com:
1512 GMT (11:12 a.m. EDT)
Altitude achieved was 330,000 feet, which was needed for the X Prize.
330k feet is 62.5 miles, or 104.5km. Congratulations guys!!!
'Be always mindful, even when ditch-digging.' --D. T. Suzuki
As much as I agree with your sentiment, if Bill Gates decided to hire someone to fly to Mars, picking up Viking I and bring it back to his mansion to be a lawn ornament, I would cheer him on.
-- stream of did I lock the front door consciousness
Every science and engineering operation with live internet access in the US today has a three-hour hole in their accounting this morning, I would imagine.
This sig is a test. If this had been an actual sig, you would be reading something quite a bit wittier than this now.
they got half of it, they need to do it again to get the prize.
I know this is history in the making, but I'm kinda sad that I can't really appreciate it right now because of the immediacy of it. But one thing I believe we can do is pay homage to the past flyers like Lindbergh, Earhart, Yeager, and all the early - the first astronauts in the Soviet Union and the US. The respective space administrations which accomplished so much.
Which is why I really respect and find wonder in this little spaceship. It seems to remind of all that has come before - the design is brilliant. It resembles so many different aircraft and spacecraft in its design that I believe it truly could be marveled for that aspect alone. The Bell X-1 comes imediately to mind, designs of the first test aircraft. The White Knight reminds me of that aircraft Voyager - which flew around the world on one tank of gas. I think that when you've got history on your side - which is the truth in this case - and you want it to happen enough, success will inevitably be yours. Congrats to the achievements and tributes of Burt Rutan and his team, Scaled Composites - it will be a wonderful glory and a beautiful new age.
--"The perfect example of the man of action is the suicide." - William Carlos Williams
Did anyone notice how none of the Scaled guys wanted to take the microphone? They all kept offering for the other guy to take the stage, not wanting to take any of the credit - these guys are the real deal!
'Be always mindful, even when ditch-digging.' --D. T. Suzuki
You realise Rutan's just GOT to design a plane for the Martian athmosphere.
The gravityis so much less there, he can really have fun.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Am I the only one who saw the "35nm" at the bottom of the flight plan (http://space.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/img_ display.php?pic=040927_ss1_flight_02.jpg&cap=The+f light+plan+for+SpaceShipOne.+Credit%3A+Scaled+Comp osites%2C+LLC) ...I realize I probably am..
and thought - Holy fsck! And they're promising to land within 35 nanometers of the launch location, talk about precision!
The craft made more than two dozen rolls during its ascent, corkscrewing upward.
"I was worried about that because that's not the way it was supposed to be," Dick Rutan said.
However, the pilot was able to correct the problem. The ship landed at 8:33 a.m. PDT
They just announced an annual X Prize Cup that will take place in New Mexico.
I am concerned about any program, any piece of hardware, any treaty, any law that treats me as a consumer, not a citizen
so that by the time it falls to the ground the ground is already gone from under it.
So what you are essentially saying, is that it is throwing itself at the ground, and missing?
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
Actually, I believe this is at least the fourth powered run, but like you say the second sub-orbital shot. Plus the unpowered flights etc., however you slice it it certainly isn't a maiden flight.
X-Price goes the way of Nascar. http://www.nascar.com/
Point out to your manager, the one who hires hotshots straight out of school instead of proven workers with years of experience: Mike Melvill, the pilot who just made history, is sixty-three years old. In some businesses he would be just two years from mandatory retirement; at Scaled Composites, Mike Melvill is still the hotshot.
I figure by 2030 or so my 6-digit UID will be something to brag about.
Oh boy - even with a flakey link I got to watch it
...
go all the way up, and to my eyes at least it looked
as if the roll started early during the burn, and
for a couple of seconds got faster.
When the guy on the ground went oh uh, I didn't
breath.
Rutan said that Mike Melvill was told he could abort, but that guy has real balls of steel, he
just stuck to it...
Wow. Loved that view from space. How many people
do you think will *kill* for that view even at
$200,000 in a couple of years?
Awesome. Nice to be able to say that the pilot
*really* burned rubber!
Hope everyone else remembered to start breathing
again. I haven't had *this* much fun since a 10
year old + Apollo 11
From what I heard, Melvill cut the burn a little
early so perhaps with a little luck (Sunday or
Monday according to Burt) they'll go even higher.
(hopefully not heaven).
Personally, I don't feel threatened by anyone that believes something different than myself.
That doesn't say much. What's the reason you don't feel threatened by someone else's belief system, if it's different from your own?
Is it because you find your own system of beliefs hard to defend and don't want to test them?
If someone is espousing or holding a concept you believe to be false, or an idea you think is wrong, and they hold it as their sincere belief, doesn't that provoke you to want to challenge it? Doesn't its very existence as an accepted belief threaten the truth-value of your conflicting belief?
Why shouldn't you care if some other human has the wrong idea? How is that benevolent, if you know better, to let another continue in ignorance? Perhaps you don't operate benevolently.
Is it because you don't care what others think? Apathy is not respect. Neither is patronizing silence. By refusing to acknowledge that you disagree with someone to whom you are interacting, you are either being enormously arrogant or enormously cowardly. Either way, your silence and acceptance is reinforcement. Christianity, and whatever other view you happen to disagree with but won't say so to their face, wins by forfeit.
There's nothing wrong with challenging an idea. To fully acknowledge an idea one disagrees with, one must necessarily challenge it - or convert to the idea himself. Not acknowledging others' ideas for fear of emotional upset or idea-conflict is wrong.
Best of luck to Private Spaceflight.
Is he related to Buzz Lightyear?
Not to say that a few people shouldn't try to eek out some bucks in a startup, but on the other hand it's easy to forget the aerospace crash of the '80s and the dotbombs in the 00's to realize that you really need to have underlying value to sustain something in the long run.
Do what you want to do and be the best at it you can, don't take a java class and hope for a dot-com million (unless you are already the type that regularly plays the local lottery). That's a bit of free advice (of course you get what you pay for).
Also it's interesting to note that no mass transit system in history has been consistantly profitable over time (e.g., busses, trains, airplanes, ferries). There are some isolated local successes, but overall the failure rate is really high and it's often the government (or a government licenced monopoly) that comes in an ends up picking up the slack (usually justified as infrastructure investment).
Some food for thought on your future career choice.
I got the machine rebooted and was very relieved to to see that Mike was still alive and on decent.
I just hope that ship doesn't use windows, and if I does, I hope it has 5 backups. Because the I wouldn't want to bet my life against the chance of 2 windows machines crashing at the same time.
-Derek
Treat me like a marketing stat, and I'll treat your movie like a series of ones and zeros
Instead of putting three other people on this flight, they simulated the weight of three adults. While this is a good first test, I sure hope they account for other issues that may come up when having simple passengers on-board. What if someone freaks out and undoes his safety belts? What if someone (or worse, everyone) vomits all about the inside of the ship? These are the kinds of things veteran pilots can usually keep under control themselves, but when they're at the controls of a frickin' rocket, the last thing they need is distractions from the passengers.
Trolls lurk everywhere. Mod them down.
Yep, and Burt Rutan was the guy who designed "Voyager" (the plane that flew round the world on
one tank of gas). His brother Dick + Janet Yeager
were the pilots.
He's also working with Steve Fossett + Sir Richard
Branson on a *new* project where Mr.Fossett plans
to do the same round the world trip *solo*.
One funny thing here: Sir Richard Branson is the
*backup* pilot - even though he doesn't have a
pilots license.
Awesome engineering. Thank god they don't believe
in computers. Can you imagine Windows CE or XP
**AARRGGHH ?
To think of how far we've come, how far technology has progressed, and how much work it took to put it all together, all I can say is I'm amazed that they were able to keep the webcast going smoothly through that tumultuous server load!
Oh yeah and the spaceship dudes did pretty good to.
Though seriously it is a huge accomplishment by Burt Rutan, Mike Melville and their team to put a craft into space. I'm just elated that I was able to spend an hour at work watching the whole thing happen live. Got pretty hairy there when the rolls started up (plus a little freaky the first time the sun shone directly on the camera and washed out the lense:) it's awesome that it all worked out!!
I stole this Sig
... Looks like they spent about 15 quid on their website.
http://www.virgingalactic.com/like.html
"COUNTDOWN BEGINS. SIX DAYS TO LAUNCH
You may well fly Virgin Atlantic Upper Class into the nearest major city. Possibly we will pick you up in the Virgin Galactic executive jet and shuttle you to the Virgin Galactic space resort, where you will be guided to your luxury accommodation. This will be home during your stay.
Every morning you could be ferried by helicopter to the training base and spaceport where you might undergo six days of medical preparation, G-Tolerance training, talking to space experts about how to get the most from your experience, fly the simulator and in the evenings dine with astronauts and guest speakers.
You could possibly have the opportunity to ride in fast jets, to experience negative gravity in our executive jet and then watch as one of the other launches leaves earth for the near reaches of space; possibly you may even ride in the mother ship. That in itself will be phenomenal, as you watch the ship rise vertically to Mach 1 (around 600 mph) in less than 10 seconds and eventually disappear into space at over 3 times the speed of sound."
(snicker)
Does this read like one of those 1950's "World of Tomorrow" Popular Science articles to anyone else?
- DRFSR
WOO HOO!!!!
(Seriously, I've been glued to the broadcast all morning. This is an exciting event, especially to someone like me who grew up in a house decorated with framed NASA mission patches, and photographs of Apollo rockets and the Earth as seen from space. The Right Stuff, indeed.)
Doing my level best to piss off the religious right wing...
I beg to differ... I watched the whole thing from NASA's live webcast simultaneously with a few buddies of mine from overseas... we also had a Skype connection going so we could chat about it. It was one of the most interesting moments in recent history. I will agree with you about one item though: The Webcast commentators were not very good.
*--- Sometimes a majority only means that all the fools are on the same side. ---*
Woooo, congratulations to all... impressive. But with a reminder that this is not easy. I just want to point that, after what happen, its clear that the design and construction of SS1 is one of the greatest of all time When I saw the first complete roll, when the surfaces ran out of air, my heart just stopped, I was just waiting for a major structural failure. If he had not been able to keep the longitude axis straight, the twisting effect would have shattered the aircraft to pieces. Let us not forget that an X-15 was lost this way, and the pilot killed. Indeed, this was impressive.
Some have suggested getting them to orbit, which is great (and as a space-tourist, I'd love to see the earth from a little further up where I can see both poles at once), but I'd rather see this:
The next X-prize is for a privately funded trans-Atlantic (I guess the Pacific is equally viable) flight capable of carrying 10 passengers across the ocean through LEO, probably within a certain amount of time (say 2 hours?) and not exceeding 3 or 4 g's.
I'd say this is the inevitable destination of civilian space travel in the short term, so it makes sense to push people towards doing more than just going straight up and down.
Not to put a damper on Scaled's achievements in any way, but comparisons to the X-15 are not yet in order. The X-15 with the big engine reached Mach 6.7 IIRC, and (not on the same flights) an altitude of 67 miles - double the speed and 10% more altitude. It would be interesting to compare the boost profiles on the altitude record flights for the X-15 to the SS1. How far do they coast up after the rocket engine is shut down?
Less is more.
Didn't make it out to Mojave today. I should've and I'm kicking myself for it. My friend Steve and I made it to the last launch, however, and brought our digital cameras (his Canon 10D and my Canon 300D). We didn't have any super-telephoto lenses and the launch was way up there, so there aren't a lot of images of the actual flight. However, there are plenty of launch and landing photos and shots of SpaceShipOne and WhiteKnight at low altitudes. Besides giving you a better idea of what the flight was like (and seeing how long it would take to kill this account), there should be a geek-appeal in that doing this with digital cameras meant that Steve and I uploaded the images to my powerbook which I had connected to a kyocera 7135 smartphone acting as a wireless modem. The images were up by 1100am.
The images may be used for a book, but the speed of this project was mostly a proof of concept for us, and while we posted it on a design news site (which took forever to do the posting therefore generally made me hate them) but I'm thinking of going up again, but if I did, I'd like to find a real outlet that might host the images and gain us some wider exposure.
http://www.simultaneous-environments.net/
Seem fairly profitable to me. In fact, Ryanair are profitable while still charging ridiculously low fares. Of course you qualified your statement with "consistently" and "over time" which basically makes it worthless. Who'd have thought that any business would be profitable all the time and for ever.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
An X-prize attempt requires three passengers; I don't see any mention of who the other two were (besides the pilot) in any of the coverage. Anybody know anything?
Have you read my blog lately?
Wow, this is actually the most excited I think I've been about the space program since I was a little kid, dreaming of being an astronaut.
To NASA: I'm sorry that you are officially so down on the concept of space tourism, but it's this kind of exposure that is going to get people interested in space again. What if the oceans or skies had been reserved for scientific research only?
--- Where's my car, and why are these grass stains on my pants?
This is great!!
I never had any doubt they would do it (ok, I know, one more to go...), this kind of leaps are only possible if you got passionate people doing their thing (design, testing, flying, sponsoring etc), and what really counts is the "where the rubber meats the track" mentality!
It's pretty sad that you are apparently going let your hatred of Microsoft diminish the extraordinary event unfolding before your very eyes.
Why not put aside your (in the grand scheme of things) petty gripes and try to appreciate history being made?
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
Ok you just reinforced my point. The SS1 dosen't go as high or as fast as the X-15 which was the real trailblazer. The idea has been done before, faster and higher but that was a government project during a cold war where the possibilities of military applications of the technology was at the forefront of the researchers minds.
The speeds of mach 6.7 isn't going to be attained by SS1 as I belive the pilot is in his sixties. Remember this is meant to be a precursor to commericial flights and not a high performance craft flown by a fighter pilot.
Private industry technologily is where the government was in the early 1960's and it only took them another nine years to get to the moon. Now granted there was political motivation to get there (damn ruskies) but the path has been laid and we now need private industry to follow it.
>
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Full story here
Fuck you and your elitist rules, today you are the dinosoars that witnesed the meteor crashing to earth. your days are numbered, and good riddance nobody will miss you.
Space tourists for $200k a head? Yawn.
A slightly reconfigured SpaceShip One could probably earn a handsome profit lugging small (~300 pound) satellites into orbit, opening all kinds of GPS & communications markets to small and medium sized companies presently locked out by exorbitant boost prices.
Although additional lift would be required from 100km to stationary orbit, it shouldn't be terribly difficult to engineer a (relatively) inexpensive modular "shell" around the satellite with 100-200 lbs of fuel and a small motor to propel it to it's desired parking place. After all, most of the energy required to launch satellites is wasted just fighting your way out of orbit, and that is what SpaceShip One has solved. A cheap ride to LEO. Significantly less energy required from there to your parking spot.
As more private space companies emerge, and the usual business expansion/contraction/merger phase cools down, we'll be left with a handful of competitors for various corporations and governments to shop around for cheapest boost prices. Everyone wins! Consumers get cool new gizmos & services.
Today's launch is but a sliver-sized glimpse of the future.
THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.
I've heard Bert Rutan. He says he carefully studied the X-15 program and points out the similarities between the X-15 and SS-1.
Rutan points out that for less than US$30 million he produced:
1) A suborbital space craft
2) A "B-52" carrier aircraft, the White Knight
3) A flight simulator
4) Various chase aircraft with trained crews.
5) An astronaut training program.
WRT the White Knight it was announced last week that it will replace the B-52 for use in drop tests of a prototype NASA/DoD space plan (X-?, the number escapes me).
Is there an industry with an exception of entertainment and pharmacuticals that has sustaining value over time? ( There probably is, I just can't think of them at this time)
.com bust think about how much better the world is because of it.
I will reinforce your arguement with another example before I counter it.
In 1905 detroit there were over two hundred american automotive companies in or surronding detroit. Automobile Startups popped up left and right with entrepenuers opening their wallets to anyone with a neat idea about cars and how they will impact society and how everyone will want one. How many of those companies exist today? Not many. Why? Well there was a big boom in automotives in the early twentieth century and like every other bubble it burst.
Sounds familiar? Well it should be, just replace the words automobile and car with computers and internet and change the dates and we have history repeating itself. Oh yeah and change the location from shitty Detroit to Cali.
It happens it's economic dawrinism, the comapinies that did not have a solid business model, product, poor managment or were founded on some half-baked idea failed. The compainies that did succeded for the most part.
Is that to say that the automotive industry is trivial and nonimportant and becoming an automotive engineer is a waste of time? Of course not.
Same with radios, tv's, movie theaters (just ask your parents about movie theaters in the sixties, alot different from the multiplexes of today). Look up old television design from the fities during it's boom and you'll see some funky cool designs from companies that are not around anymore.
Is the aerospace industry going to have the same bubble? I hope so. All usefull and some not so usefull tech has it's boom but when things settle down where better off for it.
Despite all the bad that has happened about the
>
Now that they've made it back in one piece, I don't mind saying that this turned out much better than the last nasa webcast I watched.
--
Free gmail invites
I gues i have finally found an appropriate time for this, what with the first success on a road that may eventually bring us back to space at a reasonable rate i must place this (posted as AC for karma whoring reasons):
...
It?s been a long road, getting from there to here.
It?s been a long time, but my time is finally near.
And I can feel the change in the wind right now. Nothing?s in my way.
And they?re not gonna hold me down no more, no they're not gonna hold me down.
Cause I?ve got faith of the heart.
I?m going where my heart will take me.
I?ve got faith to believe. I can do anything.
I?ve got strength of the soul. And no one?s gonna bend or break me.
I can reach any star. I?ve got faith, faith of the heart.
It?s been a long night. Trying to find my way.
Been through the darkness. Now I finally have my day.
And I will see my dream come alive at last. I will touch the sky.
And they?re not gonna hold me down no more, no they're not gonna change my mind.
Cause I?ve got faith of the heart.
I?m going where my heart will take me.
I?ve got faith to believe. I can do anything.
I?ve got strength of the soul. And no one?s gonna bend or break me.
I can reach any star. I?ve got faith, faith of the heart.
I?ve known the wind so cold, I?ve seen the darkest days.
But now the winds I feel, are only winds of change.
I?ve been through the fire and I?ve been through the rain.
But I?ll be fine
Cause I?ve got faith of the heart.
I?m going where my heart will take me.
I?ve got faith to believe. I can do anything.
I?ve got strength of the soul. And no one?s gonna bend or break me.
I can reach any star. I?ve got faith, faith of the heart.
Cause I?ve got faith of the heart.
I?m going where my heart will take me.
I?ve got faith to believe. I can do anything.
I?ve got strength of the soul. And no one?s gonna bend or break me.
I can reach any star. I?ve got faith, faith of the heart.
Moron alert!
uhh, so you know for a fact - you have some physics or aeronautic books that clearly show that SpaceShipOne would have exceeded design limits & broken up if the engine continued to burn to completion in the next 11+ secs?
Now, I would never attempt to 2nd guess a pilot of Mike Melvill's quality. He decided to terminate the burn & gain control of the craft, and I fully support him. However, nowhere is it indicated that the craft came anywhere near close to breaking up. Indeed, Mike himself stated that "he was never worried during the flight, knowing he could damp out the roll motion. Once he knew the 62-mile target altitude would be reached, he commanded the engine to shut down." But somehow YOU know it was getting ready to disintegrate.
What an idiot. Your "example" is so pathetic as to be meaningless. If you cannot see the difference between what you suggested and the events as they occurred, then it's obviously YOU who know nothing about aero/astronautics.
rho
What's happening so far as putting three people onboard SpaceShipOne? I believe the requirements for the prize dictate three people or their equivilant weight however it would be much more interesting to know actual people being used in this contest.
It's amazing the engine could actually be shut off ahead of schedule like that. Engines powerful enough to hurl a spaceship, cheap enough to build, yet capable of being shut off have been long sought after. This was the first time a solid fueled engine was ever shut off in an emergency.
The chronic losses of control are probably going to stop this from leading to anything in the future. They'll probably get a second flight with that 62 year old test subject, but space tourism involving people who still have life to live will probably end up next to Voyager in a museum.
There are plenty of practices that I will tolerate that I will neither receive with favor nor approve nor consent to nor make my own. I will, however, allow them to take place without hindrance.
Then again, maybe ". . . tolerating is not enough . . ." and you want everyone to accept your views. That seems very intolerant of others that have different views.
Congratulations to Burt and Scaled Composites for a successful flight. While I was watching the NASA TV coverage, I was thinking of the ramifications this flight might have on the cost of sending cargo up to space. Right now, it costs ~$20,000 to send 1 lb. up to GEO. It would be interesting if a White Knight/SpaceShip One-like delivery system could send cargo up for a fraction of the current price.
According to the initial reports Melville reached 330,000 feet - that's now been changed to 358,000 feet, which, if confirmed, would exceed the 354,000 feet achieved by the X-15. IMHO that still doesn't make the two comparable. The X-15 was built as a hypersonic research vehicle, and its altitude records are more a matter of "let's see how high we can go" than the craft being designed specifically with climbing performance in mind. While the SpaceShipOne will never reach the X-15's speeds, it will likely be able to reach significantly greater altitudes than it did even today, since the engines were still shut down prematurely due to the rolls occurring. Congratulations to all involved, and good luck to the other X-prize contenders.
Less is more.
Who let the mormons have mod points today?
What does his age have to do with it? IIRC, SS1 never hits more than 3G's at any point during it's flight path. This is comparable to the Shuttle, which travels 24,000 kmph (mach 18). And John Glenn went into space not too long ago on a Shuttle at age 78 (IIRC).
:-(
I'm not sold on the two-stage model for commercials flights however. It would render the craft ineffectual for many overseas routes due to lack of carrier aircraft. Rutan has to work out how to get to a single-stage vehicle (even if it requires mid-air-refueling). You can always contract to the USAF for air-tankers. Otherwise this exercise will never be more than a NY-LA, NY-TOK, NY-LON or tourist endeavour.
Nothing you present is admissable evidence supporting the existence of god. Learn what pseudoscience is, then reexamine your "evidence".
Science is the study of our universe using testable methods. Religion is conclusions drawn about our unvierse arising from story based on faith. Since religious conclusions cannot be tested using the scientific method, religion is not science.
I can prove to you that Alexander conquered Mesopotamia. You cannot prove to me that god exists.
You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
Age has nothing to do with it. I was trying to point out that SS1 and the X-15 has differnt goals thats all. Senator Glenn went through the same astronaught physicals and checked out ok. He is an exceptionaly fit man for his age. The poster who I was replying to pointed out that SS1 aproached but did not exceed the accomplishement of the X-15 and I was trying to stress that that wasn't the point.
As for the feasability of mother aircraft to launch from, since this whole project ran in the $20-30 million dollar range and has licensed by Virgin I'm sure at first there will be only three or four mothercraft to launch from, but if the business takes off I'm sure they'll add to the fleet.
>
I just wish I could work there where future is wrought.
I'm sorry 400 lbs. or test gear, recorders and momentos is not an adequate simulation of two passengers.
The dead weight does not produce the increased stress on the life support system. I'm especially conecerned that the odor scubbers would not stand up to the added load caused the natural reaction of two passengers to an unplanned violent roll manuever immediately after detaching from the mother ship.
Did anyone notice how on both their flights they managed to lose control? I saw video on the news, and the thing was just free falling for awhile (not gliding, mind you, rolling). Surely the XPRIZE officials cannot deem this a success.
hi
Prayer s attempted communication with supernatural beings (SBs). The word derives from a 14th century French word (preiere) meaning "to obtain by entreaty." The most common use of the word "prayer" is asking an SB for some favor.
Stick Men
After all, most of the energy required to launch satellites is wasted just fighting your way out of orbit, and that is what SpaceShip One has solved.
No it hasn't. Not even close. It achieved maybe 2% of what is needed for LEO.
There's a long, long way to go if you want to achieve LEO.
It just struck me that 10 years ago, the thought of "Virgin Galactic spaceships" would've sounded completely nuts. Today, it sounds inevitable.
Welcome to the future.
Global warming is neither science, nor politics. It is a religion.
RAF (Rutan Aircraft Factory) only exists now to support existing customers of their plans. I'm not sure if they ever provided actual kits. Currently you can't even buy new copies of their plans.
A few other companies are producing kits that are very closely related to some of the original Rutan designs, and may even be licensees of the designs.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Glenn Mahone
Headquarters, Washington Sept. 29, 2004
(Phone: 202/358-1898)
RELEASE: 04-323
NASA SALUTES SPACESHIPONE TEAM AFTER SECOND FLIGHT
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe congratulated the
SpaceShipOne team on the second successful flight of a human on
a private spacecraft. Administrator O'Keefe was in the Mojave
Desert, Calif., today to watch SpaceShipOne pilot Mike Melvill
take off and safely land.
"Burt Rutan and Paul Allen and the rest of the team are great
examples of the kind of determination and creativity that is
helping America achieve its exploration goals," Administrator
O'Keefe said. "We at NASA applaud their terrific achievement
today, as well as the spirit of competition behind the Ansari X
Prize.We wish Mike continued safe travels to space," he said.
>From the orbiting International Space Station, NASA astronaut
Mike Fincke took note of the SpaceShipOne flight. "Well, it was
nice that [cosmonaut] Gennady [Padalka] and I weren't the only
two humans off the planet, even if it was only for a little
while," he said during space-to-ground transmissions today.
"So, good job and congratulations to the SpaceShipOne team!"
Fincke's comments are available on the NASA TV Video File
available on the Web and via satellite in the continental U.S.
on AMC-6, Transponder 9C, C-Band, at 72 degrees west longitude.
The frequency is 3880.0 MHz. Polarization is vertical, and
audio is monaural at 6.80 MHz. In Alaska and Hawaii, NASA TV is
available on AMC-7, Transponder 18C, C-Band, at 137 degrees
west longitude. The frequency is 4060.0 MHz. Polarization is
vertical, and audio is monaural at 6.80 MHz. For NASA TV
information and schedules on the Internet, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
For information about NASA's exploration and discovery
programs, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov
-end-
* * *
NASA press releases and other information are available automatically
by sending an Internet electronic mail message to domo@hq.nasa.gov.
In the body of the message (not the subject line) users should type
the words "subscribe press-release" (no quotes). The system will
reply with a confirmation via E-mail of each subscription. A second
automatic message will include additional information on the service.
NASA releases also are available via CompuServe using the command
GO NASA. To unsubscribe from this mailing list, address an E-mail
message to domo@hq.nasa.gov, leave the subject blank, and type only
"unsubscribe press-release" (no quotes) in the body of the message.
they made my day better by showing us what can be done with some effort and stick to your guns.
...and a few millions from Paul Allen ;)
...to get excited about space flight again. I haven't been this interested in manned space flight since the first shuttle missions when I was a kid.
Rutan chose a hybrid engine (liquid/gaseous oxidizer, solid fuel) for just this reason.
Bad news: It can't be restarted.
Good news: It's nearly impossible for it to explode, can be shut down, and I believe is significantly more efficient than normal solid rockets.
I wouldn't be surprised if one of Scaled's next projects uses XCor engines - They're next-generation liquid-fueled engines that are designed to be inexpensive yet safe and powerful/efficient. XCor's current test aircraft (EZ-Rocket) is a modified Rutan design already, their chief test pilot is Burt's brother, and it seems like XCor would prefer to focus on engine development and leave airframe development to a partner - given their location and the Rutan-Rutan connection, Scaled is the logical choice. I would not be surprised if they're already working together on something that isn't publicized yet.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
So in a way there were 2 people on the flight. Anyhow, I thought that was an interesting bit of trivia...
Sounds fair, as long as we do not have to go too far into the gravity well of your planet. Can we meet at one your moons, fear or panic?
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
So if someone says "Bless you" or "God bless you" when you sneeze, do you jump down their throat, too? I mean, sheesh, they're assuming that you're religious--HOW DARE THEY!!! For all you know, the AC was referring to themself and others that (s)he know personally and who feel the same way. To assume (s)he's referring to you is to invite an excuse to act all offended.
Speaking of which, when did it become a Constitutional Right to Not Be Offended by someone's exercise of free speech/religion/etc? I sure as hell didn't vote in favor of that Amendment.
Global warming is neither science, nor politics. It is a religion.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Yes, I do.
We have to nip this whole "religion" thing in the bud, before it gets too popular.
Otherwise, it won't be too long before even government officials are using it as a basis for policy decisions.
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
Fear and Terror. It sounds cooler.
Blaze a trail to the New World
Looks like religious zealots are moderating today.
Cowboyneal, wherefore art thou...