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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."
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
Contrary to the responses of others, I will join in on the prayers. Frankly, I am concerned for those that can't see the value of both science AND religion.
Speaking as someone who is not religious, I find it ironic that so many people are so intolorant of those that are religious. Actually, the real irony is that the people who are intolorant of religion are usually the same bunch that are preaching (no pun intended) that everyone should be tolorant of others.
I guess it's ok to be tolorant of pedophiles or Islamic extremists or cross-dressing 1st grade teachers, but its not ok to respect the personal beliefs of Christians who are not imposing it on anyone. Remember, it's not intolorance if it's against Christians, right? Just like it's not racism if it's against Caucasians.
So, I wish the best of luck to all those who are involved with the project, and hope for a safe return. I guess you could call that a prayer of sorts. Personally, I don't feel threatened by anyone that believes something different than myself.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
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.
I guess it's ok to be tolorant [sic] of pedophiles or Islamic extremists or cross-dressing 1st grade teachers, but its not ok to respect the personal beliefs of Christians who are not imposing it on anyone.
There's a hierarchy here. Cross-dressing 1st grade teachers don't harrass people in the streets, so they're absolutely fine. Pedophiles and Islamic extremists don't harrass me on the streets, although they harrass others, so I (sympathetically) consider them less okay. Christians harrass me on the streets, so they're at the bottom of the pile.
(And before you say I'm letting a minority influence my views of the majority, that's true of the pedophiles and extremists, too, and you seem to have no problem with that...)
I've had this sig for three days.
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!
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.
The problem is you have to wade through so much crap, intolerance, and just...poor thinking...to get to the 'pearls' that it becomes a frustrating experience. Moderation abuse has made thresholding a completely unreliable filter. I have found too many great posts moderated to -1 by some jerk with an agenda to trust moderation any longer. This leaves me no option but to browse at -1 to make sure no signal gets thrown out with the noise.
I just want to know what you think, believe and/or find amusing. That's all.
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.
Speaking as someone who is not religious, I find it ironic that so many people are so intolorant of those that are religious.
It's not the religion that bothers people, it's the acts of fundamentalists who act under the banner of that religion, whether they are pretending to be muslims or pretending to be christians. Fundamentalist religion is a major threat to peace and democracy (a lot of wars have been fought over it, and it is used with regularity to keep dictators in power). To pretend that is not the case is to open the door to the fundamentalists to destroy the very freedoms regular people hold dear.
That doesn't mean we should target people who hold strong religious beliefs, but it does mean we shouldn't expressly not target them just because of "freedom of religion." Freedom of religion is not the freedom to act as you please, and way too many religious fundamentalists seem to think that's the case and that they have some special right to go about their business, regardless of how much it harms other people, without government or law interfering with them.
Personally, I'm an agnostic, and I fail to understand why religion gets a free ride for so many things. If you hear your dead grandmother talking to you inside your head, you get sent to a shrink and are ridiculed, if you hear god talking to you inside your head, you become a religious or political leader and are respected. The mere mark of religion lets you get away with so much in life. Bush will get an incredibly amount of votes just for having faith, regardless of his actual performance as a president, and regardless of how true his acts are to what the bible says.
When you try to get a job, and you list credentials, you have to prove you actually did the things you claim. But when you run for office and use your faith to get it, you don't have to prove your acts in life are in compliance with your faith. Why? Why does religion always get a free ride, even from agnostics?
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/
A prayer is dedication of attention and focus to a noun (person, place, or thing). Has nothing to do with superstition. While a person might pray out of faith another might pray out of respect.
The Hegel-think that men do lives on and on.
The message on the other side of this sig is false.
Ohh, screw you. It's a good way of saying "I'm wishing you luck."
What else is there to do? Tell him "well, statistics say you're fucked."
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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