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Firm is competing for the $10 million X Prize

From Dave Santucci
CNN
Friday, May 14, 2004 Posted: 2:13 PM EDT (1813 GMT)


(CNN) -- The ultimate thrill ride could be closer to reality.

Aircraft designer Burt Rutan and his firm Scaled Composites took a giant leap early Thursday toward becoming the first private company to send a person into space.

Scaled Composites, funded by Microsoft co-founder and billionaire Paul Allen, set a new civilian altitude record of 40 miles in a craft called SpaceShipOne during a test flight above California's Mojave Desert.

The firm is one of 24 companies from several countries competing for the $10 million X Prize, which will go to the first privately funded group to send three people on a 62.5-mile-high suborbital flight and repeat the feat within two weeks using the same vehicle.

The nonprofit X Prize Foundation is sponsoring the contest to promote the development of a low-cost, efficient craft for space tourism in the same way prize competitions stimulated commercial aviation in the early 20th century.

The prize is fully funded through January 1, 2005, according to the foundation's Web site.

The Rutan-designed White Knight aircraft, with SpaceShipOne attached to its belly, rolled down the Mojave Airport runway at 7:41 a.m. PT Thursday.

The strangely shaped White Knight carried SpaceShipOne to 50,000 feet. Then 50 minutes after takeoff, the spacecraft separated from White Knight and rocketed into the stratosphere.

"There was tremendous acceleration. We went very, very fast, and I went straight up" for two minutes, said 62-year-old pilot Mike Melvill, who floated weightlessly as he leveled out at 212,000 feet.

When SpaceShipOne glided back to Mojave Airport and rolled to a stop, Melvill was greeted by about 75 people, mostly employees of Scaled Composites and their families.

Shortly after his flight, a very excited Melvill told CNN that seeing the sky go from blue to black was the thrill of his life.

"I feel great, it was fabulous. I would pay a million dollars to do that again," he said.

And paying for flights is exactly what Rutan and his company are banking on.

Those who support the X Prize competition compare the hoped-for space tourism industry to the aviation industry in its infancy, pointing out that world commercial aviation is now a $250 billion enterprise.

The X Prize Foundation notes that Charles Lindbergh was competing for a $25,000 prize when he flew from New York to Paris in 1927 on the first nonstop solo trans-Atlantic flight.

Allen has shown his interest in space by funding the SETI Institute, which is dedicated to searching for life outside Earth. SETI stands for search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

"We continue to make remarkable progress with the SpaceShipOne test flights," Allen said in a statement issued after Thursday's flight.

"Our attempt to send the first privately funded astronaut into suborbital space will be the next step in that process. If successful, it will be a major milestone in private space exploration."

"The power to Destroy the planet, is insignifigant to the power of the Air Force----Mudd Vader

Very cool stuff.

"When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier."

Kipling-

This is dangerous stuff but they seem to know what they are doing. This is a damn site more exciting use of surplus money than the SETI institute.

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no what it shows you is capitalism at its best. You have group here who wants space cheap inexpensive space tourism, and know they have to do it on normal company's budget not NASA's were you can miss place 54 billion dollars in accounting and stay in business.

If these guys are sucessful NASA will be forced back into what it does best emerging technologies and long distance outter space development. If NASA stays in the business of low earth orbit with their cash burn rate we will not see the moon or mars in our life times. Let the capitalist take the proven technologies risk thier money and service the low earth orbit needs. This should also put lockheed and boeing back on their heals knowing that there is serious competition emerging.

I've been paying close attention to the X-Prize competition for over a year now, and SpaceShipOne has always looked like it would make it. There is definately light at the end of the tunnel now.

Wouldn't you think that private spaceflight might be a lot safer than government funded spaceflight? Just a thought...

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no what it shows you is capitalism at its best. You have group here who wants space cheap inexpensive space tourism, and know they have to do it on normal company's budget not NASA's were you can miss place 54 billion dollars in accounting and stay in business.
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It's not like it has not been proposed before and suckers (er, investors) have not been bilked with promises of "cheap space access". Remember that Truax Engineering company that was promoting rocket concepts, Kistler Aerospace too, or that wacky thing that had this helicopter rotor on top (Rotan?) that would deploy after re-entry and allow some maneuvering. Oh yeah, remember "Virgin Galactic Airways"? That was a self promotion thing for Richard Branson. Orbital Sciences was kick started by the notion of cheap space access but it is not cheap anymore for them. There are also other teams working on the X-prize now too. My point was that these guys at Scaled Composites seem to know what they are doing and are making good progress. That is unique. It is still extremely dangerous to be doing this kind of work on any budget, not to mention what they have to work with. You can be sure they are making calculated decisions to cut corners that can not be done in a government sponsored project. I'm impressed with their courage as well as technical capability.

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Privately-developed rocket plane will launch into history on June 21 on a mission to become the world's first commercial manned space vehicle.

The pilot of the craft, still to be announced, will become the first person to earn astronaut wings in a non-government sponsored vehicle, and the first private civilian to fly a spaceship out of the atmosphere.

That's the word on Wednesday from Scaled Composites in the Mojave, California desert -- designer and builder of SpaceShipOne. The announcement is the first time the group has pre-announced a high-altitude run of its piloted rocketship.

Investor and philanthropist Paul Allen and aviation technologist Burt Rutan have teamed to create the program, which will attempt the first non-governmental flight to leave the Earth's atmosphere.
Private flight

SpaceShipOne will rocket to 62 miles (100 kilometers) into sub-orbital space above the Mojave Civilian Aerospace Test Center, a commercial airport in the California desert. If successful, "it will signal that the space frontier is finally open to private enterprise," explained a Scaled Composites release.

Allen, founder and chairman of Vulcan Inc, is financing the project. Along with Allen, Vulcan's technology research and development team -- which takes the lead in developing high impact science and technology projects for Allen -- has been active in the project's development and management.

Today's announcement follows SpaceShipOne's successful May 13 test flight. That flight had pilot Mike Melvill hitting the engine-start button to reach a height of 211,400 feet (approximately 40 miles). That's the highest altitude ever reached by a non-government aerospace program.
Making spaceflight affordable

Sub-orbital space flight refers to a mission that flies out of the atmosphere but does not reach the speeds needed to sustain continuous orbiting of the earth. The view from a sub-orbital flight is similar to being in orbit, but the cost and risks are far less.

"Since Yuri Gagarin and Al Shepard's epoch flights in 1961, all space missions have been flown only under large, expensive government efforts. By contrast, our program involves a few, dedicated individuals who are focused entirely on making spaceflight affordable," said Burt Rutan in a press statement today.

"Without the entrepreneur approach, space access would continue to be out of reach for ordinary citizens. The SpaceShipOne flights will change all that and encourage others to usher in a new, low-cost era in space travel," Rutan added.
Spectator viewing

"Every time SpaceShipOne flies, we demonstrate that modest amounts of private funds can significantly increase the boundaries of commercial space technology," Allen also said in the statement.

Unlike any previous manned space mission, the June flight will allow the public to view, up close, the takeoff and landing as well as the overhead rocket boost to space. This will be an historic and unique spectator opportunity.

Information for the general public on attending the event is available at www.scaled.com.

The launch is set for June 21, with plans calling for taxi out to the runway of SpaceShipOne's carrier plane, the White Knight, at 6:30 a.m. local time.
Private resources

Last December, Allen confirmed that he is the behind-the-scene sponsor of the SpaceShipOne project. Allen has funded the effort since he and Rutan joined forces in March of 2001.
SpaceShipOne being carried by the White Knight turbojet.


SpaceShipOne and its White Knight turbojet carrier/launch aircraft represent the first private non-government effort to demonstrate a low-cost piloted space effort. Since it was unveiled in April 2003, SpaceShipOne has undergone 14 airborne flights: capture flights hooked to the White Knight, freefall glides, and three powered high-altitude hops.

The suborbital rocket plane is a leading contender among a worldwide cadre of groups vying for the Ansari X Prize.

For anybody to claim the $10 million cash award, they must fly a privately financed and built three-person spaceship that rockets up to 62.5 miles (100 kilometers) altitude, returns safely to Earth, and then repeats that trip within a two week period.

In a press statement last December, Allen said: "SpaceShipOne is a tangible example of continuing humankind's efforts to travel into space, effectively demonstrating that private resources can make a big difference in this field of discovery and invention."

Allen co-founded Microsoft Corporation with Bill Gates in 1975 and served as the company's executive vice president of research and new product development, the company's senior technology post, until 1983.

Today, Allen owns and invests in a suite of companies, with a portfolio focus on digital communications, new media, biotechnology, and entertainment. His primary companies include Vulcan Inc. of Seattle, Washington.
Risks of space

Peter Diamandis, Chairman of the X Prize, said Allen and his team stepped up to sponsoring a private-sector space endeavor at a time when few others were willing to take the risk.

"In my role as chairman of the X Prize, I had approached well over one hundred corporate chief executive officers regarding sponsorship. Few were able to grasp the importance of this new market...and those who were had great difficulty accepting the risks involved," Diamandis said.

Vulcan's financial support has clearly allowed the Scaled Composites team to take a methodical, step by step approach, Diamandis said. "The flight test program has been expanding the envelope in an incremental process. I hope that Allen's leadership will allow other wealthy industrialists to follow in his footsteps to sponsor spaceship development like they currently do with sail boats and race cars," he said

"The power to Destroy the planet, is insignifigant to the power of the Air Force----Mudd Vader

Sounds like the early days at NASA. But hell more power to them. Can I get a ride? lol

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