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."

Comments

Just to nitpick

[CodeWanker]

100 km is not low earth orbit. It's just the lower boundary for being declared an astronaut.

Re:Just to nitpick

[nizo]

Perhaps it is an arbitrary number picked by astronauts that is too high for other jet pilots to attain in normal aircraft? Or maybe it is too high for a normal parachute bail-out if your craft has problems? Ahh here we go:this link tells us why.

Re:Just to nitpick

[WhiplashII]

Well, if the Earth's mass was all in a point, that radius would be the Schwarzschild radius, which for the Earth is about 9mm. Of course, the Earth is bigger than this, so there is no such orbit.

Good thing too, because if there was such an orbit, the Earth would be a black hole!

Live Webcast from X-Prize.org

[Coz]

There's a webcast link from the people actually sponsoring it (who presumably know more than the normal press:
XPrize.Org

Weblog-style coverage

[kieran]

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

Direct NASA TV links

[daveschroeder]

Real Media
Real Media high quality

Windows Media

Many more...

Re:Kiss that stream good bye

[Aerion]

but it appears it was delayed due to high wind.

I'm not sure it was delayed, per se. The high winds were anticipated as typical conditions of the Mojave - usually when the sun comes up in the Mojave, the winds die down for a while. This makes it a popular place for test flights, because the conditions right after sunrise are pretty predictable.

more nitpicks

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Eligable for the X-Prize?

[Anonymous Coward]

Nope, the official rules say you have to have the weight of 3 people, but you dont have to actually have 3 people.

It's cool but the bigger picture is cooler

[Treeluvinhippy]

They are essentially recreating the X-15 experiments made in the early sixties.

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/x15/cove r.html

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 .com boom.

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.

Events summary up to 11:18 a.m. EDT

[dark-br]

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