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SpaceShipOne Captures the X Prize

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the takes-two-to-tango dept.

SpaceShipOne's second flight was a success, the craft successfully launching from mothership White Knight and returning safely about 20 minutes later. If the flight is certified to have reached the X Prize's target height (62.5 miles) before its safe return, it will win the $10 million purse, and more importantly attain the prestige of repeatably (if only technically) reaching space, on a budget embarrassingly smaller than NASA's. Today's flight was manned by 51-year-old test pilot Brian Binnie (rather than Mike Melvill, who piloted last week's trip), and according to spectators present at both launches seemed even smoother than last week's flight. The view from the sidelines was incredible. flapjack submits a link to CNN's coverage of the launch (which lists a claimed height attained of 368,000 feet), noting "Interesting to note that a majority of its funding ($20-$30 million) was put up by Microsoft's own, Paul Allen." See also the official X Prize site for continuing live coverage. Update: 10/04 17:05 GMT by T : I was able to attend the launch; read below for my short sketch of the event. Impressions from the launch:

I got to Mojave yesterday evening (it's a long way from El Paso), slept in my car, and got to the airfield itself just before 4 a.m. Traffic on state highway 58 was brisk already, though not clogged (which it later became), and nearly every car was turning onto the two-lane entrance heading for acres of packed-dirt parking spaces near the runway from which SpaceShipOne would take off.

The crowd which built up in the following hours was surprisingly quiet on takeoff, which happened right at 7:45 local time. Not exactly hushed -- perhaps "hesitant" is a better word, or maybe just waking up. Only scattered clapping (guilty!) as the White Knight / SpaceShipOne piggyback duo lifted off, followed shortly by two chase planes, an AlphaJet and a Beechcraft Starship. The enthusiasm grew, though, as the flight progressed; a P.A. system kept the spectators informed of the trip's progress.

When SpaceShipOne finally separated and fired upward ("Good release, good release!" over the P.A, followed by enthusiastic cheering), it was after three separate two-minute warnings, then for one-minute and 30-second intervals. After an 84-second burn followed by a clean shutdown, SpaceShipOne coasted to its final altitude. At 90 seconds into the flight, the ship was well past 100,000 feet, and out of sight to the unaided eye. At 7:51, an altitude of 328,000 feet was reported, but the ship was still climbing for the next 40,000 feet under its own momentum. The reported peak altitude is enough to top the previous record, set by an X-15 at 354,200 ft. in 1963.

The descent was happily uneventful. At 60,000 feet, Binnie experienced "slight oscillations" -- consistent with previous flights, according to the announcer, who continued to count down the altitude. At approximately 45,000 feet, the conditions are right for contrails, and more cheering erupted when those popped into view. The crowd perked up and cheered even more with the first of two sonic booms audible on the ground (the booms that occur during ascent aren't), pointing and shading their eyes from the sun, following the ship as it traveled in wide arcs to bleed off the energy of the ascent, followed by a smooth 3-point landing.

(Special thanks to the members of the Foothill High School band who traveled the three hours from Orange County to watch the flight and play both before and after the flight. The launch itself was surprisingly low on ceremony, and their playing provided a bit of well-deserved pomp.)

9 of 896 comments (clear)

  1. Binnie has to survive for 24 hours by Cobalt+Jacket · · Score: 5, Funny

    According to the rules...so anyone from the da Vinci team...you know how to win!

    1. Re:Binnie has to survive for 24 hours by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Even if that happens, Scaled Composited can re-fit the SS1 for another flight even before the end of the two weeks limit. They played it safe so that a single miss wouldn't mean having to start over

      Yeah, but bullets generally come in boxes of 10 or 20.

  2. Old News. by corngrower · · Score: 5, Funny

    I was wondering when this news would be making it to slashdot. It's been nearly 15 minutes since I first read about it.

  3. Re:Summer Vacation In Outer Space by brainspank · · Score: 5, Funny

    just hope they don't lose your luggage.

    "I'm sorry sir, your bags went to Uranus."
    "D'Oh!"

    --
    It's only a model.
  4. Re:Summer Vacation In Outer Space by JUSTONEMORELATTE · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sounds great, if you want your summer vacation to last about 75 seconds.
    Oh, and cost US$200,000
    And have a non-trivial chance of killing you

    Other than that, I'm totally there dude!


    --
    Free gmail invites

  5. Re:Obligatory.... by baywulf · · Score: 5, Funny

    Step 3: Spend less tha ten million dollars.

  6. Re:Summer Vacation In Outer Space by xaqar · · Score: 5, Funny

    And if you don't find them, my foot is going to Uranus!

  7. Historical moment by Believe · · Score: 5, Funny

    Microsoft is finally associated with something that DOESN'T crash!

  8. Re:Summer Vacation In Outer Space by MustardMan · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's what I call REAL ULTIMATE POWER!!!!

    This post is about SpaceShipOne, REAL SpaceShipOne. This post is awesome. My name is James and I can't stop thinking about SpaceShipOne. This ship is cool; and by cool, I mean totally sweet.

    Facts:
    1. SpaceShipOne is a spaceship
    2. SpaceShipOne flies into space ALL the time.
    3. The purpose of SpaceShipOne is to flip out and do barrel rolls

    Weapons and gear:

    Rubber powered rocket
    White Knight mothership
    Floating M&Ms

    Testimonial:
    SpaceShipOne can fly anywhere it wants! SpaceShipOne sonic booms ALL the time and doesn't even think twice about it. This ship is so crazy and awesome that it barrel rolls ALL the time. I heard that this guy was flying SpaceShipOne. And when some dude launched the rocket the SpaceShipOne started oscillating like crazy. My friend Chico said he saw M&Ms totally float inside SpaceShipOne just because it was in a parabolic arc.

    And that's what I call REAL ULTIMATE POWER!!!!!!!

    If you don't believe that SpaceShipOne has REAL ULTIMATE POWER you better get a life right now or they will win the x-prize. It's an easy choice, if you ask me.

    SpaceShipOne is sooooooooooo sweet that I want to crap my pants. I can't belive it sometimes, but I feel it inside my heart. SpaceShipOne is totally awesome and that's a fact. SpaceShipOne is fast, cool, strong, powerful, sexy, and 31337. I can't wait to start watching my Star Wars DVD next month. I love SpaceShipOne with all of my body (including my pee pee).