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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.
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
That's because you're listening to Howard Stern. That man is the bottom feeder of American society ... I don't think I've ever heard anything positive come out of his mouth (unless it was a comment about a hot chick).
But did anyone happen to notice that Ms. Ansari is teh hot?
Ansari and Allen aren't the ones who created the craft. Burt Rutan and his team did all of the work. Allen provided the money and Ansari just gave the X-Prize a much needed booster shot.
Don't forget that another team from Canada plans on making a go at the prize too (or at least a footnote on the record books at this point).
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
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.
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!
Oh man, watching this live. For a while I thought this was going to be a disaster. Thankfully we all got it wrong.
- sigs are for wimps.
A suborbital flight and a 'proper' orbital flight are two very different beasts. the speeds the shuttle needs to acvieve in order to go into orbit is far, far higher than a mere suborbital flight which is basicall just going straight upwards and then fall down again. The shuttle needs to achieve great horisontal speed to avoid falling down to earth again, but rather fall *around* earth. THe only (economic) means of getting rid of this speed in order to land is breaking against the atmospere which causes severe heating,, hence the heatprotecting tiles on the shuttle - SpaceShipone does not need these tiles.
These tiles are very brittle and needs to be gone through inbetween the launches - which takes alot of time. Also pretty much the whole shuttle has to be gone through, the forces working on the shuttle is far greater than the forces on SpaceShipOne.
Granted, the shuttle is a bit of an overcomplicated design and 1970's tech, which doesn't help either.
if (!signature) { throw std::runtime_error("No sig!"); }
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.
Wow, looked like it rolled over 20 times in the ascent. Now that's a wild ride.
In true test-pilot fashion, he did an intentional victory roll on the way back down.
This is intense, I'm jumping up and down screaming at the tv...
Kip Hawley is an idiot.
I'm firmly of the opinion that the difficulty of "rocket science" has been built up in the public consciousness so high that, by now, even building something like SpaceShipOne from first design principles through to succesful flights isn't rocket science.
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.
Yes, the scientific method relies heavily on Occam's razor.
If two competing theories can explain the same set of phenomena, then the simpler one wins. There might be a luminiferous ether through which everything moves, that is compressed by that movement in a way that completely compensates for the motion, leaving one unable to detect ones motion relative to the ether. Complicated, complicated, complicated. Or there might be no ether. Simple.
Which theory is better?
There might be gods that push the planets around in complete accordance with Newton's inverse-square law (except for Mercury). Or the planets move of their own accord.
Which theory is better?
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...
Using my karma bonus to get this up a bit.
To _ME_ it looked like he got wind sheer or whatever that started the roll. You could see him fight it but it seems like he may have over compensated and sent it into a roll accidentally. But I have a feeling it was wind related and not mechanical or pilot error. It's gotta be hard to control that thing at those speeds with manual controls.
That was madness, me and my dad watched it all on CNN, i swear that reporter woman needs to be shot, dumb as a brick i tell ya.
On another note that intentional roll rocked, I seen him do that and cheered, that was amazing guys.
To me this is like my parents being able to watch apollo and all the first space flights. It's incredible and I'm glad to get to experience it. If i could i'd like to shake the hands of every man and woman involved in this effort, they made my day better by showing us what can be done with some effort and stick to your guns.
Kyle
http://www.unlogikal.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.
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?
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.
ahh, let the religious types have their comfort. Doesn't hurt anything until it starts to infringe on our rights.
Change the second sentence to past tense, and I'd agree.
David Gould
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