Topic: Spaceship One Rockets to 68,000 feet (12.88 miles) (Read 11207 times)

IKV Nemesis D7L · « **on:** December 17, 2003, 09:05:37 pm »

link

Limited quote:

Quote:

A privately financed passenger-carrying sub-orbital rocket plane screamed its way through the sound barrier today, the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers historic 12-second flight over Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

Privately built by Scaled Composites of Mojave, California, the SpaceShipOne cranked up its hybrid rocket motor after being released from the White Knight carrier plane high over Mojave, California.

"This successful and historic flight is important because we are showing that the private sector can perform human space flight faster, safer and cheaper," said Jim Benson, founding chairman and chief executive of SpaceDev, the Poway, California-based company that built SpaceShipOne's engine.

Test pilot Brian Binnie then put SpaceShipOne into a steep climb. Nine seconds later, SpaceShipOne broke the sound barrier and continued its steep powered ascent.

At motor shutdown, 15 seconds after ignition, SpaceShipOne was climbing at a 60-degree angle and flying near 1.2 Mach (930 mph).

Binnie continued the maneuver to a vertical climb, achieving zero speed at an altitude of 68,000 feet. He then configured the ship in its high-drag "feathered" shape to simulate the condition it will experience when it enters the atmosphere after a sub-orbital space flight.

The first powered flight. A minor landing problem but it looks good so far.

Sirgod · « **Reply #1 on:** December 18, 2003, 09:42:10 am »

this is A very cool Story. I menat to comment It on It last night, But I got distracted. I'm really beggining to think that Commercial space Flight might be the way to go in the Future.

Stephen

RogueJedi_XC · « **Reply #3 on:** December 18, 2003, 11:23:38 am »

NASA just got a big message from private enterprise: "your time is up".

Excellent news.

IKV Nemesis D7L · « **Reply #4 on:** December 18, 2003, 05:55:13 pm »

I have not seen a reliable source but the rumour is that Paul Allen is the money behind Spaceship One. So that evil Microsoft money is doing some good.

For those who might not have heard much about Spaceship one before the designer believes it can be scaled up from the current 3 ton ship to a 300 ton model. That should allow the possibility of reaching not only orbit but the Station with useful cargo and passengers.

Also the builders once they have successfully flown to 100km plans to do so once a week for 20 consecutive weeks just to prove it can be done.

Acidrain · « **Reply #5 on:** December 19, 2003, 06:55:17 pm »

I would have to agree with Jedi, Watch out NASA!!!!

Thank god and i think my i feel my faith of getting into space.

Later Acid

Rat_Boy · « **Reply #6 on:** December 21, 2003, 01:27:51 pm »

Photos of SS1's misshap.

And Paul Allen IS an investor in SS1...

S'Raek · « **Reply #8 on:** December 22, 2003, 03:09:41 pm »

OK, enough of this scientific conversation stuff. Time for something really important - pop culture! Wasn't Spaceship One the name of the homemade rocket in that goofy TV show back in the day? The one with the guy that owned the junkyard.

Stormbringer · « **Reply #9 on:** December 22, 2003, 03:12:04 pm »

Vulture one. Made from a cement truck tumbler.

Stormbringer · « **Reply #11 on:** December 22, 2003, 11:37:13 pm »

The darned thing still looks like a retro 1950's pulp science fiction serial style cinema rocket ship. Flash gordon, maybe?

IKV Nemesis D7L · « **Reply #12 on:** December 22, 2003, 11:41:26 pm »

Crashed Spaceship One , damage minimal. Note Spaceship one carries 3 people. Only the pilot (uninjured) was aboard for the crash.

Stormbringer · « **Reply #13 on:** December 22, 2003, 11:58:02 pm »

See what I mean?

IKV Nemesis D7L · « **Reply #14 on:** December 23, 2003, 12:18:04 am »

Link to page of pictures

The White Knight carrying craft is interesting in its own right. I wonder what its carrying capacity is.

White Knight flying alone.

White Knight carrying Spaceship One in flight.

White Knight carrying Spaceship One in flight again.

Spaceship One going up.

Assuming that Spaceship one wins the X-Prize and carries out the planned 20 flights in 20 weeks I wonder who has the model rights?

Lepton1 · « **Reply #15 on:** December 23, 2003, 01:15:40 pm »

I am guessing this is the Rutan group, considering the design and the chase plane?? That seems llike a rough flight schedule. I thought they just had to take 3 people up and do it a couple of times to win the X-Prize. Exciting stuff.

Stormbringer · « **Reply #16 on:** December 23, 2003, 01:42:08 pm »

Duck Dogers in the twenty fourth and a half century!

Lepton1 · « **Reply #17 on:** December 23, 2003, 01:56:14 pm »

That planned flight schedule was a rumor begun by a misinformed magazine reporter. If you check out the Rutan site (scaled.com), they have that disclaimer clearly stated. If you ask me, Rutan has this one in the bag. He is using his own tested designs and design philosophy so he isn't starting from square one. Around the world non-stop flight, now into space. How does this guy get the money to pull this stuff off???

Stormbringer · « **Reply #18 on:** December 23, 2003, 02:02:35 pm »

Well, he is a visionary. He comes up with ideas conventional engineers think are impossible and makes them work for a living. Plus he has visionaries for supporters. But before he had much support he and dedicated friends used to do all the work themselves. You know; for example, a car is just a couple of grand worth of material. If you could machine or fabricate all the parts yourself you could have a car that cheap. Same thing for vehicles costing millions of dollars (Same principle anyway.) The inflated prices we pay are engineering , factory tool up, labor, sales, distribution etc. At least thats how they justify the prices the charge for things. The fact is building them if done smart is much cheaper than all that.

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Topic: Spaceship One Rockets to 68,000 feet (12.88 miles) (Read 11207 times) var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true};

IKV Nemesis D7L

Sirgod

Toasty0

RogueJedi_XC

IKV Nemesis D7L

Acidrain

Rat_Boy

Death_Merchant

S'Raek

Stormbringer

Kmelew

Stormbringer

IKV Nemesis D7L

Stormbringer

IKV Nemesis D7L

Lepton1

Stormbringer

Lepton1

Stormbringer

Death_Merchant

Topic: Spaceship One Rockets to 68,000 feet (12.88 miles) (Read 11207 times)