ANSARI X PRIZE Space Race News!

ANSARI X PRIZE Space Race News! moved to http://www.XPrizeNews.org

2004-07-18T21:44:00.000Z

We have moved to http://www.XPrizeNews.org.

Coming Soon: www.XPrizeNews.org

2004-07-17T00:30:00.000Z

A new web url has been registrated: http://www.xprizenews.org.

You can expect a "new" website on that address in a few hours/days.

English Rocket Company Moves to Cruces

2004-07-14T12:00:00.000Z

Louie Gilot, El Paso Times
A British company chose Las Cruces to reach for the stars.
Starchaser Industries, one of the contenders for the $10 million Ansari X Prize, will open an office in Las Cruces next month and begin launch tests at White Sands later this year, company officials said. Starchaser is building a small, reusable passenger spacecraft.

Space bill movement...

2004-07-13T15:35:00.000Z

According to the latest Space News (print edition) Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma plans to release his hold on the Commercial Space Launch Admendments Act (H.R.3752) by July 23rd. He put the hold on because of the concerns of Rocketplane Limited, based in Oklahoma, that the bill would relegate its vehicle to FAA aviation certification procedures rather than to the AST launch licensing regime. The XP spends most of its time under turbojet power before it fires a rocket to go to 100km.
Rocketplane lobbyist Kevin Kelly said, "We're getting close to resolving the whole thing." Unfortunately, time is getting very short before Congress takes a six week break. The bill's backers hope a deal can be made by July 20 when the Senate Commerce Committee will hold a mark up session.

No, the sky is not the limit for the private sector

2004-07-13T15:30:00.000Z

EDITORIAL
The flight of SpaceShipOne should have gotten more attention.
It's flight is on a par with Charles Lindbergh's Atlantic crossing in 1927, the efforts of Amelia Earhart and the pioneering flights of astronauts Alan Shepard and John Glenn. Maybe even the flight of the Wright brothers.
Test pilot Mike Melvill flew SpaceShipOne to a record-breaking altitude of 328,491 feet -- just beyond 62 miles, the internationally recognized boundary of outer space.

House Science Committee Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics to Examine Role of Contests and Prizes in Space Exploration

2004-07-13T15:22:00.000Z

Chairman of X Prize Foundation to Testify
WASHINGTON, D.C. - On Thursday, July 15, 2004, the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics will hold a hearing to examine whether and how federally sponsored prizes could be an effective tool to spur innovation and encourage commercial participation in the development of advanced space technologies.
NASA has recently begun a small prize program, but has proposed that Congress provide it with authority to offer larger prizes.

Perspective: Actually, It Really is Rocket Science

2004-07-13T15:13:00.000Z

Birmingham Post; Birmingham (UK)
The hottest topic in aviation today is the Ansari X-Prize. So what is it, who's going to win and what will they do next?
The Ansari X Prize represents a reward of $10 million for the first team to fly a piloted spacecraft beyond the earth's atmosphere. When it was first announced, many in the industry dismissed the whole idea as gimmick. A few weeks ago, all that began to change.

Armadillo Aerospace News: Electronics Failures

2004-07-13T01:11:00.000Z

We set up for another captive hover test of the big vehicle on Tuesday. Everything proceeded well, but as I started the flight control software up to warm the engine, the self-test failed because one of the jet vane actuators was not responding. The automated self test on every startup now is a Very Good Thing, because I very likely would have missed this condition, as the vane position graphs aren’t on the first visible page of telemetry results. On the driver board, two actuator bit LED’s seemed to be stuck on We connected the ribbon cable to a brand new driver board, and found that they were still on, so the fault was in the AccessIO A/D + DIO board. We had moved to a Diamond A/D + DIO board for the A/D, since we had fried four of the AccessIO boards (probably from the motor inductive kicks, in hindsight), but the digital IO pinout was completely different, so we had been continuing to use the AccessIO board to run the motor drives, because the DIO part seemed to still be functioning fine, even though the A/D was fried. Apparently this wasn’t a great idea. It is odd that it seemed to give up sometime late in the vehicle pressurization, because I had started it and let it pass self test several times during the loading process. Read More

Self-Taught Pilot Going to Space

2004-07-12T16:10:00.000Z

Competitors and organizers of the Ansari X Prize -- the international race to create and fly a privately financed rocket ship for space tourists -- like to talk about launching a new era of barnstorming.

Like during the early days of aviation, they see pilots at the controls of experimental craft taking to the heavens by the dozens or hundreds. Mike Melvill became the first people's astronaut last month when he flew Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne to an altitude of 100 kilometers over Mojave, California. That marked the first time a civilian pilot at the controls of a privately built spacecraft had flown to space.

Now, a self-taught Canadian engineer leading a group of volunteers is determined to become space barnstormer No. 2.

Melvill's feat made Rutan's team the favorite to win the X Prize's $10 million jackpot when it launches its next flight later this year. But so far, no one has publicly given the required 60-day notice for a prize attempt. And Brian Feeney, the leader of a Canadian team that plans to blast a spherical capsule called Wild Fire into space, says he'll give SpaceShipOne a run for its money.

Read more...

Last time Brian Feeney claimed he was going to announce launch plans at an event, he didn't, but as Scaled gets ready to fly, he doesn't really have any choice if he wants to be in the competition. July 21 should be interesting.

We are revamping the ANSARI X-PRIZE news website, and we need help.

2004-07-12T15:46:00.000Z

That's right, we need YOUR help. If you can host us, want to have your site design used by us (and supposedly get an x-prize t-shirt signed by all the news staff somehow), or just want to be a reporter, please email Sigurd at xprize@gmail.com or me at terramars@gmail.com, comment on this post, or reply on the messageboard topic about this. Regardless of how you want to help, you can find Sigurd's announcement on the messageboard here, with lots of details and things we're not quite sure about.

X Prize attempt in late September

2004-07-09T17:09:00.000Z

Lori Smith wrote: If you’re still kicking yourself for missing SpaceShipOne’s historic flight last month, you might pencil in a trip to Mojave for late September. That’s when, according to SpaceShipOne pilot Mike Melvill, the same team is going to launch their bid for the $10 million Ansari X Prize.

Appearing on MSNBC’s "Deborah Norville Tonight" Thursday, Melvill confirmed earlier reports that Scaled Composites is closing in on an official try, which requires 60-day notice.
“We plan on [trying] toward the end of September this year,” said Melvill, adding that he didn’t know who would be the pilot for that attempt.
“I’m hoping to encourage another individual to do it, but I’ll be standing by in case they need me,” he told Norville.
A video clip of Melvill talking about the attempt (including some mild trash-talking) can be watched on the MSNBC site. Read More

SpaceShipOne back on course.

2004-07-08T00:33:00.000Z

X Prize contender Burt Rutan says his team has solved a control problem that threw its spacecraft off course during a historic flight last month and that the next time the ship flies it will be to capture the $10 million space jackpot.

"That's a complete, entire yes," Rutan said when asked whether his Scaled Composites team had gotten to the bottom of a trim-control problem experienced during SpaceShipOne's voyage to an altitude of 100 kilometers on June 21.

After the flight -- the first time a civilian flew a private craft into space -- pilot Mike Melvill said a control needed to steer SpaceShipOne at supersonic speeds malfunctioned. The problem caused him to veer more than 20 miles outside the flight's planned re-entry zone over Southern California's Mojave Desert.

But Melvill was able to use a backup system to control the craft and made a perfect landing after gliding back to the ship's base at the Mojave Airport. At the time, Rutan said the problem was the most serious safety issue encountered during the development of SpaceShipOne.

"There is no way we will fly again without knowing the cause and without assuring that we fixed it," he said at a press conference following the flight.

Interorbital Systems WebSite Update

2004-07-06T17:48:00.000Z

Interorbital Systems updated their website with a lot more information, pictures, ... you can visit it over here.

They are using "graphics" for their website (not that bad), but the usage of "BMP" forum is a little annoying...

Some info:
NANO SLV: Competing to be the world's first private-sector satelite launch vehicle. Launches are scheduled to begin in 2005.
NEPTUNE OLV: Competing to be the world's first private-sector manned orbital launch vehicle. Launches are scheduled to begin in 2006 (note, those are only the beginning of test flights, not directly manned flights to orbit).

SPACEPORT TONGA: Located in the South Pacific just below the equator, the Kingdom of Tonga is the ideal location for conducting orbital rocket launches, Unpopulated, Land-free open ocean provides safe stage drop zones for both polar and 21 degree orbital flight trajectories. The first launch of the IOS Nano SLV is scheduled to take place from Spaceport Tonga in 2005.

A large text related to Interorbital Systems committed to commercial manned orbital space flight. http://www.interorbital.com/Manned%20Space%20Ops%20Page_1.htm

SPACE TRANSPORT CORPORATION LAUNCHES TEST ROCKET

2004-07-06T17:42:00.000Z

In celebration of July 4th, Space Transport Corporation (STC) launched a two-stage rocket to 56,000 feet (17.0 kilometers). This flight proved out the recovery system and resulted in excellent high-altitude digital pictures. STC plans a three-stage rocket launch to 60 kilometers later this month. This two-stage launch was, in a way, a final tuning flight prior to a 60 kilometer shot. The two- and three-stage rockets are four inches in diameter. The 60-kilometer flight test is separate from the Rubicon launch, which will stay on track for a launch in the second half of July. Pictures from the flight are appended to this press release. The picture at lower left is the best shot from near apogee. The onboard camera took pictures every 4 seconds throughout the flight. Apogee was achieved approximately 50 seconds after liftoff. The peak speed was 2450 mph or Mach 3.4. The expected slight ablation (when material “melts away” during high-speed flight through the atmosphere) was seen on the rocket’s nosecone. Space Transport Corporation develops launch vehicle technologies using a practical test-oriented approach. Eric Meier and Phillip Storm are the driving force behind STC. STC is a contender for the $10 million Ansari X Prize (see www.xprize.org). The space tourism market, one of STC’s ultimate targets, is worth much more than $10 million. For more information about STC activities, please visit www.space-transport.com.

Armadillo Aerospace News: Ready to fly

2004-07-05T20:42:00.000Z

As far as we know, everything is completely ready for flight testing on the big vehicle, but we weren’t able to get our usual lift truck for testing on Saturday. We did a lot of other miscellaneous stuff, but we are definitely looking forward to our tests on Tuesday.
The shock absorbers for the big vehicle are in ( mc64100-1 from http://www.parker.com/cylinder/cat/english/102202.pdf ). I need to buy a 2mm thread mill so I can cut nice thick mounting blocks for these in the future, but for this vehicle I made some plates that capture the jam nut and let us screw the shocks through a form fitting tube and hard up against the base mount. We need to land pretty straight with these, but they are only a third the weight of the big wire rope isolators, and they don’t have any spring back on landing.

http://media.armadilloaerospace.com/2004_07_04/shocksBefore.jpg
http://media.armadilloaerospace.com/2004_07_04/shocksAfter.jpg

We anchored a piece of road plate on the concrete so we won’t chew it up any more during hover tests.

http://media.armadilloaerospace.com/2004_07_04/roadPlate.jpg

We have modified the metal vehicle stands with some side legs, which we plan on using instead of the messy foam blocks for the first elevated hanging test, but after that proves out, we will do a ground liftoff while tethered under the crane. After that, we will head to the 100 acres for a boosted hop. Read More

Space Woodstock: Memories of a Party in the Desert

2004-07-05T09:05:00.000Z

Alan's Mojave weblog: Now that things around Mojave have settled down a bit and everyone has seen plenty of pictures of the launch hardware, I've gone back through the photos from Space Day and found a number that commemorate the unique feel of what went on there. Reports are that the crowd numbered between 11,000 and 15,000, and it was a uniquely American small-town morning.
In an afternoon, the town of Mojave's population almost doubled, and would double again the next morning. RVers line up for Mojave's first Space Party
Not quite knowing what to expect, and not wanting to be caught off-guard, the Kern Sheriff's Department was out in big numbers, including an air unit. One officer later commented that it was about the tamest crowd he'd ever seen. That's what happens when a bunch of space nerds all get together...lots of fun, no headaches.
Even the folks at NASA didn't want to miss this event. Buzz Aldrin watched from the VIP area. It's not known whether this was his means of arrival, but Ship 66 was parked amongst all the other transients that had arrived for the show.
Mojave's never seen this much press. Numerous live broadcasts put our little town on the map!
For pictures and the whole text, visit mojavebooks.com

Fundamental Technology Systems: WebSite Finaly Up

2004-07-03T14:40:00.000Z

Fundamental Technology Systems created a website, check it out.

Some info about their Research Rocket Plane:
The Research Rocket Plane Tested Vehicle is being developed to
1.) demonstrate engine catalist bed design,
2.) validate guidance computer software,
3.) validate vertical takeoff - horizontal landing configuration, and
4.) validate performance models. It is powered by a 1/10 scale Aurora kerosene and hydrogen peroxide rocket motor providing 1000 lbf.
Following erection on the mobile TEL the RRP is lanched and boosts for 100 seconds to 49,900 feet at 1000 fps velocity. Following boost, the RRP climbs to apogee at 62,000 feet, executes a pitch-over maneuver. At T+130 seconds the RRP flight control system deploys the wings and rolls out the RRP to glide back home. Waypoint guidance is used during the 38 psf descent glide at ~190 KTAS. The mission is complete at T+51 minutes with a flare and horizontal landing at ~86 KTAS. Com includes 1 UHF telemetry downlink and 1 UHF command uplink.

Two RRPs are in fabrication and each offers the opportunity for customers to test payloads installed in the RRP payload bay. The RRP provides investment opportunities for interested parties to benefit from the development and sales of reuseable experimantal rockets and test support service.

Pablo De Leon and Associates News Update

2004-07-01T17:42:00.000Z

NewThe Argentinian ANSARI X PRIZE entry, is working to complete the first test of their escape system. This escape system is designed to lift the crew capsule to safety in case of malfunction of the main launch vehicle. The escape system is basically three solid-propellant rockets attached to a tower at 120 degrees each, on top of the capsule. In the test, the escape rockets will ignite and lift the capsule to a safe distance from the launch rocket. The test will be performed in the Province of Buenos Aires, in a secure test area. If successful, this test will allow De Leon to continue development and ensure safer flights tests.

Space Transport Corporation News Update

2004-07-01T17:40:00.000Z

Forks, WA-based Space Transport Corporation has had their Rubicon ANSARI X PRIZE vehicle on display locally and in Seattle at The Museum of Flight during the month of June. The 22-foot tall Rubicon, complete with orange nosecone, guidance system and seven-engine rocket cluster (unfueled), was mounted in the guide rails of STC's mobile launch trailer. STC has launched multiple three-stage rockets in the past two months, one reaching 50 kilometers. STC expects to launch Rubicon to 15,000 feet on its maiden flight in mid-July from a location on the Olympic Peninsula near Forks.

ARCA News Update

2004-07-01T17:39:00.000Z

ARCA Team Leader Dumitru Popescu announced that his ANSARI X PRIZE demonstrator vehicle is moving forward to the flight test stage. According to the team's June 5 press release, the "World's first composite materials reusable monopropellant rocket engine will be flight tested in July on board the Demonstrator 2-B rocket. The first flight will be made below 10 km, mainly because of the launch site restrictions." ARCA plans for this technology to be used on the ORIZONT, its ANSARI X PRIZE vehicle, with manned flights starting with the next year.

HARC News Update

2004-07-01T17:36:00.000Z

The Alabama-based HARC Team is developing and following a new business model based on Escape Tower Rocket Motor (ETRoM) driven capsule launching. Having completed the final design of the ETRoM , HARC has begun construction on the stand-alone capsule systems (SACS). The ETRoM driven SACS is expected to produce the Team's first rocket business profit center. In order to help validate capsule stability associated with capsule geometry, winds, tip-off, etc., HARC designed and constructed a sub-scale flight model SACS and ETRoM. These systems are being used for flight-testing that produces real results, instead of relying solely on simulations. The flight model has offered HARC the ability to fly frequently with minimal operational costs. Utilizing state of the art fuel regression techniques, according to Team Leader Don Robinson, "HARC was able to achieve over 7000 pounds of thrust in a motor that is only 10 inches in diameter by 36 inches long. The beauty of this motor system is that it is extremely low cost, efficient, and easy to reload for successive flights."

da Vinci Project News Update

2004-07-01T17:33:00.000Z

Canadian da Vinci Project Team is set to move into its new location at Downsview Park in North West Toronto. In the 1920's fabric aircraft were built at this location, along with Canada's first satellite in 1962. Downsview Park and its buildings were formerly a military base and today are part of an area also used by Bombardier Aerospace. Their new facility faces an active runway that is owned and operated by Bombardier. Across the driveway from da Vinci's new building is the Toronto Aviation Museum, the original home of The de Havilland Aircraft of Canada Ltd., one of Canada's most successful aircraft manufacturers. da Vinci plans to complete its move before the end of June so that it can continue uninterrupted development and testing work on its ANSARI X PRIZE vehicle, "Wildfire."

Interorbital Systems News Update

2004-07-01T17:30:00.000Z

The Solaris X three-person X PRIZE design has now been switched over to its original configuration as the upper stage of the Neptune-Solaris Orbital Spaceliner, a two-stage stack carrying an eight-person space tourism capsule. Interorbital Systems has been an advocate of orbital tourism and on-orbit human-presence activities since the company's founding in 1996. In a parallel project, Interorbital Systems is completing work on the third stage of a nanosatellite launch vehicle. IOS is competing to become the first purely private-sector rocket company to launch a privately funded satellite into orbit.

THE X PRIZE FOUNDATION NEWSLETTER : June 30, 2004

2004-07-01T17:26:00.000Z

THE X PRIZE FOUNDATION NEWSLETTER : June 30, 2004

The X PRIZE Foundation released their latest newsletter.

You can read the newsletter by clicking here.

The next stage for private spaceflight

2004-07-01T00:28:00.000Z

Infant industry capitalizes on success of SpaceShipOne;
By Alan Boyle Science editor MSNBC

MOJAVE, Calif. - SpaceShipOne’s milestone flight last week instantly transformed private-sector space travel from a rocket geek’s fantasy into reality.
One man's flight, however, does not an industry make. Not even the rocket plane's designer, Burt Rutan, or billionaire backer Paul Allen claim that SpaceShipOne in its current form could be a profit-making venture.
So now it's up a wide spectrum of players in the field to figure out how to make piloted suborbital flights profitable. Although they may differ over the best way to do that, nearly all agree that last week's flight to the 100-kilometer mark eliminated their biggest obstacle.
"Burt Rutan has destroyed the giggle factor in this business forever," said Pat Bahn, who is the Washington director of the Suborbital Institute as well as president of Oklahoma-based TGV Rockets. TGV is developing its own vertical-takeoff, vertical-landing vertical landing for suborbital space flights.
At the Mojave Airport, where SpaceShipOne was developed and flown, eight companies are working on space projects, said Stuart Witt, the airport's general manager. And just days after the airport was designated a commercial spaceport, Witt said a $100 million proposal for yet another Mojave space venture was sitting on his desk.
"They're just looking for the name to put on the check," Witt told MSNBC.com.
One of the other tenants at the Mojave Airport is XCOR Aerospace, which plans to build a suborbital space plane called the Xerus. XCOR's president, Jeff Greason, and company spokesman Rich Pournelle marveled at how quickly perceptions were changing. Read More

A Few other articles:
United Press International: Space Race II: Paving a new path to space
tehachapinews.com: Tehachapi pilot rockets into history
Financial Times: Mission achieved through genius and hard work

EXPLORERS CLUB FLAG GRANTED

2004-07-01T00:19:00.000Z

The X PRIZE Foundation has been granted the honor of carrying The Explorers Club flag on the spacecraft that wins the ANSARI X PRIZE. This flag represents an impressive history of courage and accomplishment and has been carried on hundreds of expeditions by Club members since 1918 (www.explorers.org). The Explorers Club flag has been proudly flown from the depths of the ocean to the lunar surface demonstrating the spirit of exploration of the men and women who put it there. The weight of the Flag will be credited as payload/passenger ballast. The X PRIZE Foundation will coordinate with teams to place the Flag aboard all official attempts to win the prize. Credit for arranging his honor goes to X PRIZE Advisor Jonathan Conrad and Special Ops member Nick Skytland (pictured with Peter Diamandis).

Why You Can't Buy a Spaceflight

2004-06-29T17:06:00.000Z

You can't just buy a ticket to space. Dennis Tito did once, but no one else has. Why is that?

Promoters of the Ansari X Prize understand that part of the reason is that there isn't a private group offering such a service. Maybe there will be soon.

Let me give you another reason. The government could have taken passengers for a long time, but they set the price too high. NASA, by refusing non-Senatorial passengers essentially set the price at an infinite number of dollars. The Russians were a little more forthcoming - $20 million plus a lot of headaches.

Wanna know more? I'm an economist, and I have a longer post about this entitled "Governments Don't Price Well" at my blog, voluntaryXchange.

Inductive kick, Miscellaneous

2004-06-28T15:35:00.000Z

Inductive kick

We finally found out exactly why we have had the computer reboot on the big vehicle a couple times.

We were looking at various possibilities with the valves over rotating in case there might be a shorted spot in the feedback potentiometer. The pot never caused a problem, but we did occasionally see the computer crash right when the valve hit the shaft limit switch, and we found that we could also get the computer to crash by manually shorting or triggering the limit switches on some of the valves. It isn’t a current draw issue, because the actuator battery is separate from the computer battery, and manually shorting one of the powered actuator lines can burn the transistors, but not hurt anything else. Even with the actuator drivers and battery completely isolated from the computer power, the abrupt interruption of power to the motors would cause enough of an inductive kick in the other electronics to kill the computer. Russ put a scope on the computer power and found that there was a short +/-2 V buzz at very high frequency when the biggest valve hit the limit switch and crashed the computer. Using the driver board to switch directions didn’t kill things because the transistors provided a more gentle switching transient than the manual limit switches.

Read more...

Space.com: SpaceShipOne Data Shows Vessel Took a 'Trajectory Excursion'

2004-06-26T09:01:00.000Z

Flight data from the first private vehicle to soar beyond the Earth's atmosphere has been posted by Scaled Composites, designer and builder of the SpaceShipOne. The flight was not trouble-free.
With 63-year-old pilot Mike Melvill at the controls, SpaceShipOne’s fourth powered flight on June 21 sliced through the sky high over Mojave, California desert. It was the first commercial astronaut flight by exceeding 328,000 feet (100 kilometers) -- to the edge of space.
The flight marked the first time an aerospace program had successfully completed a piloted mission without government sponsorship.

Momentum carried the day
On the June 21 flight day, SpaceShipOne was released at 47,000 feet from underneath the White Knight carrier airplane. The SpaceShipOne’s hybrid rocket motor quickly roared to life, burning for 76 seconds, according to the Scaled Composites flight log.
The hybrid rocket engine propelled pilot Melvill and the SpaceShipOne to 2.9 Mach (2,150 miles per hour), or nearly three times the speed of sound. At motor burn out, SpaceShipOne was at 180,000 feet, with momentum carrying the craft the rest of the way into space and reaching a height, or apogee, of 328,491 feet (62.2 statute miles), or 100.1 kilometers. Read More

Space Transport Corporation: Display Success at The Museum of Flight

2004-06-24T12:43:00.000Z

On Sunday and Monday of Father’s Day weekend, Space Transport Corporation
displayed their Rubicon Ansari X PRIZE vehicle in Seattle at The Museum of Flight. At
the event, the 22-foot tall Rubicon, complete with orange nosecone, guidance system and
seven-engine rocket cluster (unfueled), was mounted in the guide rails of STC’s mobile
launch trailer.

On Monday, of course, Scaled Composites (Burt Rutan, Paul Allen and crew) achieved
the first private manned space flight. STC hails this as a wonderful achievement and an
event that shines a good light on all private space programs. It was a step for Scaled
towards winning the X Prize. However, Scaled will not be able to attempt an X Prize
winning flight for over two months. STC believes that a great opportunity still exists to
give Scaled a run for their money. Scaled will need to carry an additional 400 pounds of
payload to win the prize (this could cause them to come up short of the required 100
kilometers). Activity by other X Prize teams is also picking up to make for a lot of fun
and public awareness about private space travel. There is room for many companies to
succeed in private spaceware development, especially space tourism vehicles.
Based on the fact that an enormous market (a prize much bigger than the $10 M X Prize)
is waiting, STC is optimistic about raising funds needed to run its manned spaceflight
development program. The latest proud STC sponsor is the Forks Coffee House in
downtown Forks.

While at The Museum of Flight, media exposure of STC’s efforts, sparked by Scaled’s
test flight, was great. The exposure is a powerful demonstration to potential
sponsors/investors that STC is a serious space technology developer. Selected news
coverage videos will be (or are already) posted to www.space-transport.com/?stc=gallery.

STC expects to launch Rubicon to 15,000 feet on its maiden flight in mid-July from a
location on the Olympic Peninsula near Forks. Keep an eye on the latest updates at
www.space-transport.com.
STC has launched multiple three-stage rockets in the past two months, one reaching 50
kilometers. This pilot project has been valuable preparation for Rubicon flights. A flight
with photograph recovery is expected soon.

Starchaser space firm to open New Mexico office

2004-06-23T18:03:00.000Z

Starchaser a British company that is seeking to win the $10 million Ansari X Prize purse says it will open an office in Las Cruces, New Mexico Economic Development Department Secretary Rick Homans said.

Starchaser Industries, based in Hyde, Cheshire, is looking to be the first private firm to put a reusable launch vehicle with a three-person crew 62.5 miles into space, return it safely to Earth and repeat the launch in the same vehicle two weeks later.

X PRIZE award officials say they hope the competition will spur a private space flight industry. New Mexico is hoping to become the center of that commercial space flight industry, and has already won the right to host the X PRIZE Cup, a two-week-long, annual space show that will take place in the summer of 2005.

Starchaser says it is committed to developing affordable, reusable space vehicles and that it hopes to begin launch operations in New Mexico as early as 2006. The launch operations will take place on New Mexico's 100-square-mile Southwest regional spaceport located north of Las Cruces, which is about 260 miles south of Albuquerque. Read More

Also:

Consultancy sponsors UK's "X prize" entry
Confidence at the Starchaser team has soared after they secured substantial sponsorship from Moliere Ltd to help produce the "Thunderstar" rocket they are entering in to the international "X prize".
The team has secured the cash from Manchester based computer consultant firm, Moliere Ltd, whose monies will fund the Launch Escape System (LES). The Launch Escape System will protect the crew from a variety of emergency scenarios, from a launch pad fire through all stages of powered flight. The LES is currently under construction and is a vital part of the Thunderstar rocket, Starchaser's latest hope in the race for the X prize - where the first enterprise to get a three man rocket in to space will net $10million (6.7m).

Still more sponsorship needs to be raised to help finish building the rocket.

X PRIZE Foundation Congratulates Burt Rutan, Mike Melvill, Scaled Composites and Paul Allen on Successful, History-Making Spaceflight

2004-06-23T17:39:00.000Z

Competing ANSARI X PRIZE team makes milestone achievement in Mojave Desert on June 21, 2004

Los Angeles, CA (June 22, 2004) -- The X PRIZE Foundation extended congratulations to the American SpaceShipOne Team, led by Burt Rutan, on its successful June 21st manned test flight, which made its mark in history as being the first privately financed, manned ship to travel to space. The milestone is a giant step in the American SpaceShipOne Team’s plan to win the $10 million ANSARI X PRIZE Competition, created to open the space frontier for the public.

“The aim of the ANSARI X PRIZE is to change the existing paradigm that space travel is only for governments and traditional government astronauts,” says Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, Chairman and Founder of the X PRIZE Foundation. “We congratulate the entire Scaled Composite team, in particular Burt Rutan and Mike Melvill for achieving this tremendous milestone. We also thank Paul Allen for his willingness to help open this critical, but risky frontier. The entire X PRIZE organization looks forward to receiving Scaled Composite’s 60-day notice indicating they are ready to make their attempt to win the $10 million purse. Once such notice is received, we will make the information publicly available.”

Before year’s end, several ANSARI X PRIZE teams are expected to make flight attempts with their 3-place spaceships. The ANSARI X PRIZE competition was inspired by the celebrated Orteig Prize won by Charles Lindbergh in 1927 for his historic flight from New York to Paris. The “new race to space” challenges today’s best and brightest entrepreneurs to create a safe, reusable, cost effective spaceship able to carry three individuals to an altitude of 100km (62 miles), bring them safely back to Earth and make the flight again within two weeks.

Scaled Composite’s SpaceShipOne flight on June 21st was not a qualifying ANSARI X PRIZE flight because it only carried the one pilot, without the weight equivalent of two other individuals. This flight was a test flight in preparation for competition flight attempts later this year.

The X PRIZE Foundation was created to help jumpstart a commercial public spaceflight industry. There is already a demonstrable consumer demand for such space tourism flight. Though early flights will carry a high price tag, the cost is expected to drop as new technology is developed and such flights become more routine. The X PRIZE Foundation is empowering entrepreneurs and visionaries worldwide to build and demonstrate different spacecraft designs to carry the rest of us into space.

About the X PRIZE Foundation
The X PRIZE Foundation is a not-for-profit educational organization, with headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri. The Foundation is supported by its title sponsor the Ansari Family and its Presenting Sponsor Champ Car World Series. The Foundation is also supported by private donations from the St. Louis Community through an organization called the New Spirit of St. Louis. The Foundation's mission is to create educational programming for students and space enthusiasts as well as provide incentives in the private sector to make space travel frequent and affordable for the general public. Several additional sponsorships for the ANSARI X PRIZE competition remain available to corporations or individuals who wish to support the X PRIZE and associate themselves with courage, determination, achievement, space, speed, high performance and technology.

To find out how individuals or corporations can join the efforts of the X PRIZE, or involve neighborhood schools or community centers with X PRIZE educational programs, visit www.xprize.org or contact the office at 636-519-9449.

SpaceShipOne News and Rutan going to orbit sooner than you think!

2004-06-22T21:24:00.000Z

SpaceShipOne Update:

If you missed the flight, you can watch it all over (51 mins, 59 secs), click here to acces the real media file.
And click here to watch SpaceShipOne in space (1 min 50secs, but not constantly a space camera view)

Thanx to KC7RAD who made an xprize chat on the last minute, the link was available on the ANSARI X PRIZE forums; he released the chatlog.
The chat is still open for anyone intrested in chatting about the xprize, but for questions, you better share it with everyone on the forums.

When SpaceShipOne almost reached space, an other record was made, the ANSARI X PRIZE forums got a 67 users online at once, the previous record was a very low 18.

The flight of SpaceShipOne was a historical one, but still a test flight, so not without several anomalies.

Space.com: Private Spaceship Encounters Glitches In Record-Setting Flight

There were tense times during the sky-blistering flight of SpaceShipOne here this morning. Fighting control problems, pilot Mike Melvill wrestled with several anomalies that cut short a pre-planned altitude mark.

At a post-landing press briefing, the 63-year old Melvill described a series of technical snags that haunted his record-setting flight. Right after motor ignition, the pilot said the craft rolled 90 degrees to the left, then 90 degrees to the right. "It has never ever done that before," he explained. Read More

Scaled posted this article on their website: SpaceShipOne Makes History: First Private Manned Mission to Space
The world witnessed the dawn of a new space age today, as investor and philanthropist Paul G. Allen and Scaled Composites launched the first private manned vehicle beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. The successful launch demonstrated that the final frontier is now open to private enterprise.

Under the command of test pilot Mike Melvill, SpaceShipOne reached a record breaking altitude of 328,491 feet (approximately 62 miles or 100 km) (Apogee was 100.1241 km), making Melvill the first civilian to fly a spaceship out of the atmosphere and the first private pilot to earn astronaut wings.

This flight begins an exciting new era in space travel,” said Paul G. Allen, sole sponsor in the SpaceShipOne program. “Burt Rutan and his team at Scaled Composites are part of a new generation of explorers who are sparking the imagination of a huge number of people worldwide and ushering in the birth of a new industry of privately funded manned space flight.” Read More

Scaled also reports that you can get official SpaceShipOne merchandise at: www.rocketboosters.org

Joan Horvath sent in this first hand report on the SpaceShipOne flight to hobbyspace.com.
hobbyspace.com notes: BTW: Joan will be on the Space Show this Sunday, June 27, 12-1:30pm Pacific Time. See the Space Show Newsletter for a biography of Joan. Tune in online at Live365.

spaceflightnow.com has a very detailed article about the SpaceShipOne event:
SpaceShipOne rockets into history
Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon, also was on hand to greet the new astronaut "and to have him come up and shake my hand and congratulate me and tell me I'd joined the club, that was serious stuff, man," Melvill said. Click here to read A lot more about the event

Alan's Mojave weblog latest update include a lot of very nice pictures from the event.

Also rocketforge.org has pictures of the event, including one with Peter Diamandis (President of the ANSARI X PRIZE foundation) walking down the Mojave flight line.
Also Richard Branson was spotted at the event, Richard will make an announcement soon for his space tourism project (maybe he'll join up with scaled ?) you can speculate over here.

Maybe Allen and Sir Richard will join up for Tier 2 and Tier 3 ?
This article in the Popular Science mentions Burt Rutan his intentions to make a Tier 2 and Tier3!
After winning the X-Prize, Rutan will quickly move on to other challenges. During press conferences leading up to Monday's flights, he dropped hints about "going to orbit sooner than you think," an apparent allusion to the Tier 3 orbital space-vehicle program that he is reportedly involved in. The SpaceShipOne program is known as Tier 1, and Tier 2 would probably be a tour-bus-like version of the same concept, a vehicle capable of carrying up to 10 passengers on suborbital space flights. Under his contract with Allen, Rutan is required to deliver data on how much such a vehicle would cost to build and fly. Mojave Aerospace--a new company jointly owned by Allen and Rutan and disclosed this week--will own the rights to SpaceShipOne technology and would oversee future franchising and commercialization efforts for the system. Details will remain secret, said the cagey Rutan, "until we're ready to push something out of the door." Read the whole article

A few related News articles: (links from spacetoday.net)
spacedaily.com: New Entrants Versus Incumbents: Triumph of Truth and Technology
seattlepi.nwsource.com: The Captain Kirk of fiction relishes real spaceflight
borderlandnews.com: Spacecraft takes NM's hopes with it
news.ft.com: Enter the age of the day trip to space
newscientist.com: 'Anomalies' in first private spaceflight revealed
nature.com: SpaceShipOne scrapes into history

You can post or share your thaughts related to this news post on the ANSARI X PRIZE forum

SpaceShipOne Update

2004-06-21T15:24:00.000Z

This is only 1 of the manny teams.. and only the first flight, 2 xprize spaceshipone flights still coming and ofcourse many more :)
So keep tuned ;) the coming weeks, months and years.. this will be dreams coming true.

SpaceShipOne made history; some updates:

floridatoday.com: SpaceShipOne flight journal (news step by step)

thespacereview.com: Prelude to history?

space.com: Success! SpaceShipOne Makes History with First Manned Private Spaceflight

news.bbc.co.uk: Private craft makes space history
cnn.com: Private craft flies into space
msnbc.msn.com: Private rocket ship breaks space barrier
wjla.com: Plane Soars Out of Earth's Atmosphere
ktla.trb.com: First Private Space Flight Returns Safely
globeandmail.com: Private rocket back on Earth
nbc17.com: First Manned, Private Spacecraft Reaches Space
reuters.co.uk: Private Rocket Plane Successfully Punches Into Space
universetoday.com: Success for SpaceShipOne!
kake.com: Historic Flight
stltoday.com: SpaceShipOne reaches space, returns
inhome.rediff.com: Spaceship launch successful
local6.com: First Manned, Private Spacecraft Reaches Space
suntimes.com: Rocket plane makes first private spaceflight
abcnews.go.com: Plane Soars Out of Earth's Atmosphere
tucsoncitizen.com: SpaceShipOne rocket plane climbs above Earth's atmosphere in first private space flight
nbc5i.com: First Manned, Private Spacecraft Reaches Space

SpaceShipOne Successfully Punches Into Space

2004-06-21T15:03:00.000Z

Reuters - SpaceShipOne successfully punched beyond the earth's atmosphere on Monday in the world's first attempt at manned commercial space flight.
The privately funded rocket plane was released from a larger plane called the White Knight and ignited its rocket engine to enter space 62 miles above the earth.

The distinctive white rocket plane took off from a runway in the Mojave Desert in California, about 100 miles north of Los Angeles, and was expected to land back there.

It's time!

2004-06-21T13:16:00.000Z

It's time... Time to put on your TV or live internet streaming!

Go SpaceShipOne Go!

Goodluck!

BBC free live stream: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsa/n5ctrl/live/now1.ram

50 minutes and counting down...

2004-06-21T12:31:00.000Z

At the moment of writing, it's only 50 minutes before SpaceShipOne will go into space.

Peter Diamandis was interviewed on the Today show a few mins ago, He was articulate and enthusiastic.
Great quote: "I've offered to go as ballast." (source)

lol, perfect moment, xprize forum seems to have database errors...

Space.com: special SpaceShipOne report

2004-06-21T09:32:00.000Z

Space.com put up a special page section with a special SpaceShipOne report.

History could change Monday when the first privately-built spacecraft carries a human into space. SPACE.com will report from Mojave, California. Complete coverage.

Web, TV, Radio Coverage: Viewer's Guide

if you're still looking for a web stream, MSNBC has in this article a link to the msn live stream starting at 9:30 am EST.

SpaceShipOne.. Almost time..

2004-06-21T09:30:00.000Z

It's only hours away before spaceshipone will fly into space!

Some new articles:
bakersfield.com: Starship enterprise
bradenton.com: First privately built spacecraft set for sub-orbital flight
wireservice.wired.com: Private Rocket Plane to Launch from Mojave Desert
"We do want our children to go the planets," said Rutan, the pioneering aerospace engineer who also designed the Voyager aircraft, the first airplane to fly around the world without refueling.
The white rocket plane with its striking nose -- a pointed cone covered with small portholes, was built with more than $20 million in funding by Allen, who co-founded Microsoft Corp.
"Tomorrow we will attempt to add a new page to the aviation books," Allen told more than 300 reporters gathered for the event, "It's incredibly exciting."
If all goes well, Allen and SpaceShipOne's builders are expected to announce their next goal after SpaceShipOne's flight, the Ansari X Prize, which is offering $10 million to the first team that sends three people, or an equivalent weight, on a manned space vehicle 60 miles above the earth and repeats the trip within two weeks.
"I am ready to go, and we are going to win the X Prize," said Melvill, 62, a professional test pilot from South Africa with U.S. citizenship

seven.com.au: Privately developed rocket launched
news.scotsman.com: Private Rocket Counts Down to Make Aviation History
kansascity.com: SpaceShipOne flight could help usher in commercial space travel
usatoday.com: Private craft to head for space
taipeitimes.com: Private spacecraft takes to the skies today in test flight
thestar.co.za: All set for first privately manned spaceflight
news.tbo.com: Private Space Flight Is Go For Launch
deepikaglobal.com: Private US rocket plane to launch from Mojave desert
guardian.co.uk: High flyer may open the final frontier
floridatoday.com: Citizen aims for space today
washingtontimes.com: Space history awaited
chron.com: Civilian ready to pilot rocket
news.ft.com: Private rocket plane to launch in U.S
pe.com: Private space flight's D-day
dailynews.com: Private spacecraft out to make history
baltimoresun.com: Entrepreneurs vying to put a man in space
cooltech.iafrica.com: SA pilot to make historic space flight

An other xprize related article: digitaljournal.com: Canadians among Private Teams to Attempt Astronaut Launch

Some Updates

2004-06-21T09:19:00.000Z

from hobbyspace.com you can read "Rand Simberg will be blogging from Mojave."

Also reported by bobbyspace.com is: "The X PRIZE team Canadian Arrow is showing a picture of their vehicle on their home page with the statement that they will "start test flights this August." They also have updated the pages on their Space Centre, engine test stand (that's a good sized engine), and propulsion."

Armadillo Aerospace News: Good intentions, bad results

2004-06-21T08:43:00.000Z

Armadillo Aerospace: If anyone missed the mid-week update I did about the perfect flight of the small vehicle, go read that first. We had problems trying to hover the big vehicle this weekend.
A minor improvement I have made to the laptop software is to display the dilution of precision (PDOP) number from the GPS on the status light, because previously it would have been green even if it was running with very poor coverage. I need to spend some time and collect more GPS diagnostic information, like satellite S/N ratios, but I’m not sure if I want to add a lot more traffic to the serial port during actual run times.
The first problem we ran into was installing the batteries in the new battery boxes on the big vehicle. We have started using upset thread lock nuts for a lot of things now, but when rapidly tightening them down on one of the battery clamp studs, it galled onto the stud. We use stainless for everything, because a little mist of peroxide will corrode steel bolts pretty badly, but galling is a common issue for us. Using anti-seize prevents this, but we should probably use nylon insert lock nuts in areas that aren’t going to be heat affected, and leave the all-metal locking nuts just for areas near the engine. We had to cut off the studs and weld new ones in place, all inside the vehicle, because the battery boxes are permanently bonded in.
When we rolled the vehicle outside, we noticed something off when I ran an extra check on the jet vane controllers: vane one was moving about half speed one direction, but full speed the other direction. We puzzled over this a bit, finding that swapping controllers around always had that actuator displaying the move-slow-one-way behavior, so we were confident it was the actuator. This was the new one that we had replaced after melting one of them last test. We were thinking that we could still test with a slow drive, because it was still moving fast enough to work, but while exercising it with normal flight movement, Phil looked over our way and let out a cry of “Smoke!” A pretty good quantity of smoke was coming out of the cabin where the electronics were mounted. One of the motor drives was fried. Fortunately, we have plenty of spares of the driver board, so we prepped up another one and replaced it. To make us even more confused, when we tested the problem actuator directly with a manual switch box, it was full speed both ways, and when we pulled the valve off and tested it with a different channel on the burned board, it also ran fine both directions. The new driver board still showed the slow-one-way problem, so we stopped quickly to avoid smoking it. We finally thought to check the resistance from the motor drive to the vehicle frame, and found that there was a low resistance path from one of the drive leads to the motor shaft, which makes its way to the vanes, conductive graphite bearings, up through the engine, and back to ground through the spark plug return line. None of the other valves were like this. Read More

Waiting... for history...

2004-06-21T01:29:00.000Z

On this moment... people from all over the world... are waiting for the first private space ship to write history with going into space.

Time is ticking.. and it's only 10 hours away from now(Time of writing) (see countdown at space.com).
Waiting for a new chapter in space travel... while we're all waiting.. we can remember the past with a few songs and a movie:

(Video and All music are from: To Touch the Stars: A Musical Celebration of Space Exploration)

Great movie:
http://prometheus-music.com/video/Hope_Eyrie.wmv

Songs:
Witnesses’ Waltz (Kristoph Klover) Stream
Fire in the Sky (Kristoph Klover) Stream MP3_Download
Hope Eyrie: (Julia Ecklar) Stream MP3_Download
Surprise!: (Gunnar Madsen) MP3_Download
The Pioneers of Mars (Karen Linsley) Stream MP3_Download
Others Standing By (Kristoph Klover) Stream MP3_Download
Dog on the Moon (Garry Novikoff) Stream
Legends (Julia Ecklar) Stream MP3_Download

SpaceShipOne Articles Update

2004-06-20T23:28:00.000Z

On this moment of writing.. it's only 12 hours away before SpaceShipOne with pilot Mike Melvill will make history!
SpaceShipOne related articles update: (not many new.. most websites report copies from eachother)

thestar.com: Closer to the stars
katu.com: Paul Allen-funded company hopes to launch private spacecraft
voanews.com: Private Team to Attempt Astronaut Launch
signonsandiego.com: Attempt set for first private manned spaceflight
dailyrecord.co.uk: HOME-MADE SPACESHIP
msnbc.msn.com: First private space pilot 'ready to go', Spectators gather for milestone space mission (INCLUDING FREE VIDEO - Burt Rutan and Paul Allen discuss SpaceShipOne's historic attempt.)

Centennial Challenges Workshop Summary

2004-06-20T22:12:00.000Z

I've received this text, from a person who asked to stay anonymous; he wrote:
I went to the recent Centennial Challenges workshop and had a blast! I typed up a report of the interesting things that happened there.

Centennial Challenges Workshop Summary

On June 15-16, engineers and scientists from all corners of the space industry converged on the Washington, D.C. Hilton to discuss the idea of NASA-sponsored prizes at the Centennial Challenges workshop. By making awards based on actual achievements, instead of proposals, Centennial Challenges seeks novel solutions to NASA's mission challenges from non-traditional sources of innovation in academia, industry and the public.

The conference comprised both plenary sessions, where the entire audience gathered in one large ballroom to hear various speakers such as rocket entrepreneur Elon Musk, Senator Sam Brownback, Presidential science advisor Jack Marburger, and Centennial Challenges program manager Brant Sponberg, and breakout sessions, where smaller groups brainstormed ideas for new prizes or hammered out possible rules for existing prize concepts.

The diversity of personalities – NASA employees, space entrepreneurs, academics, college students – led to numerous spirited debates. SpaceDev founder Jim Benson provoked much discussion when he told the audience that private industry could deliver the same products as NASA for one-fifth the cost. The soft-spoken but hard-hitting CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk, assailed traditional contracting practices: “there’s a 100% chance the money will be spent.” Most present, however, agreed on one thing: prize competitions are a cost-effective way to generate innovation and excitement.

The afternoon of June 15 featured a lively panel discussion about past and current prize competitions. Colonel Jose Negron of the DARPA Grand Challenge brought action-packed videos showing the competing autonomous vehicles trying to avoid cliffs and rocks. Negron expects hundreds of teams to register for the DARPA Grand Challenge II to be held in 2005. X PRIZE founder Peter Diamandis, explaining the tortuous path the X PRIZE took before it became a success, at one point decided to “let CNN do the talking”; the monitor showed a CNN reporter praising the May flight of SpaceShipOne. X PRIZE Vice President Erik Lindbergh shared the story of his famous grandfather, whose pursuit of the Orteig Prize led to an aviation revolution. Although the panel’s discussion ran longer than expected, the speakers’ enthusiasm kept the audience captivated throughout.

During brainstorming sessions on June 15, moderators directed discussions of possible prize concepts in such areas as aeronautics, planetary systems, and bioastronautics. Every attendee of the workshop was given a chance to propose a prize concept. The diverse range of personalities contributed a diverse range of prize ideas: build an inflatable telescope, deflect an asteroid, create a 30-day unmanned aerial vehicle, develop the best material for human radiation shielding. Ten proposals were culled from the dozens of ideas generated and further discussed in Rules Development sessions on June 16.

Other breakout sessions were designed to fill in the blanks on ideas generated by an internal NASA study months before the workshop. Participants developed rules, definitions, judging methodologies, time limits, and possible purse sizes for each of 22 prize concepts. The prizes ran the gamut from a $100,000 purse for a precision lander to $20 million for an asteroid sample return. All ideas were recorded by the moderators present in each conference room.

The timing of the workshop could not have been better; on the second day of the workshop, the President’s Commission on Moon, Mars, and Beyond issued its long-awaited report, recommending that “Congress increase the potential for commercial opportunities related to the national space exploration vision… by creating significant monetary prizes for the accomplishment of space missions and/or technology developments.” The Commission also “strongly supports the Centennial Challenge program recently established by NASA.”

In the final hours of the workshop, Brant Sponberg detailed the next steps for the prize program. Sponberg and his staff of two will incorporate the volumes of suggestions generated by the workshop to develop detailed rules for various candidate prizes. Developing good rules is a crucial requirement for a successful prize, explained Peter Diamandis during the conference. In the next few months, Centennial Challenges hopes to issue the initial round of competitions, with purses of $250,000 or less. In the next fiscal year (2005), prizes of up to $20 million will follow. Judging by the enthusiasm of the workshop’s participants, Centennial Challenges will have no trouble getting people to compete for its prizes!

The identity of the first private-sector space pilot announced

2004-06-20T21:56:00.000Z

The identity of the first private-sector space pilot was announced Sunday, as thousands of spectators gathered on the desert town to witness what may be the beginning of a new era in manned spaceflight.

The main event is scheduled for Monday morning, when pilot Mike Melvill will power the SpaceShipOne rocket plane to a height of 62 miles (100 kilometers), the internationally recognized boundary of outer space.

Melvill, 62, is vice president and general manager of Mojave-based Scaled Composites, which built SpaceShipOne and its White Knight carrier airplane. He also piloted the previous test flight, which took the ship to an altitude of 211,400 feet on May 13.

MSNBC: The Last Word: Paul Allen

2004-06-20T13:56:00.000Z

This Monday a sleek rocket-powered glider named SpaceShipOne will lift off from an airfield 95 miles north of Los Angeles in the Mojave Desert and thrust to the very edge of space. It will be a historic achievement: the first piloted spacecraft built and launched not by a government but by a private company, Scaled Composites, whose founder, Burt Rutan, is a legend in the field of aircraft design. But Rutan couldn't have reached this milestone without the deep pockets of backer Paul Allen, cofounder of Microsoft and the fifth richest man in the world. Normally reluctant to talk to the press, the 51-year-old Allen spoke to NEWSWEEK's Brad Stone last week about why he spent a rumored $30 million on the project, the risks of manned space travel and President George W. Bush's timetable for sending Americans back to the moon and on to Mars. Excerpts:

STONE: Why did you fund this project?
ALLEN: I was looking for possible space-related endeavors that I could participate in. Burt is a very talented guy, and any projects you'd want to do, Burt is the person to talk to. He has such an innovative mind and a great team of people familiar with how you could [build] unusual vehicles. He and his team are experts at using carbon composites to build very light but very strong vehicles. And then the X Prize [a $10 million prize for the first private spacecraft to reach suborbital space] got announced. Through friends I met with Burt, and we hit it off right away. He started sketching ideas.
Why did you keep your investment a secret for so long?
Since the X Prize is a competition, I wanted to keep it under wraps. We have a modest budget, but maybe it is higher than some other teams. Keeping it secret helped give us the lead.
What were your thoughts about the risks of this project after the space-shuttle Columbia tragedy?
Anything like that heightens your awareness of the risks involved. But it's not like Burt or I or any of his team weren't aware of them. We didn't stop work.
Are we on the verge of a commercial space-tourism industry?
We have shown that you can construct a vehicle like this with a modest budget. The big question is, how many people will sign up, and will they pay $50,000 to $200,000 to go on one of those flights. It's not something I would contemplate unless I had partners willing to share the risk. I'm not personally really looking much beyond Monday, and then winning the X Prize. Read More

News Articles Update

2004-06-20T13:44:00.000Z

An other news links update...

TheCelebrityCafe.com: Privately Funded Rocket Planes to Compete for ANSARI X Prize!
stuff.co.nz: Private rocket plane aiming for space flight prize
ajc.com:(subscription) First private spaceflight ready to go
floridatoday.com: Stakes are big as test flight aims to make space history
startribune.com: Aiming for space without the help of a government
taipeitimes.com: From private enterprise to space pioneer
chron.com: Private space travel years away, But companies race to fill huge potential market
kansas.com: Kansan poised to launch his dream into space
msnbc.msn.com: Space Travel: Great Space Coaster?
azcentral.com: Spaceship launch a big draw
boston.com: Rocket plane strives to break space barrier
indystar.com: Private spaceflight set
herald.ns.ca: Ground control to Mr. Tom
sunherald.com: A whisper of creation, a glimpse of infinity
duluthsuperior.com: Ground control to Average Joe...
sunherald.com: Future of private space travel rides on Monday flight
boston.com: Can prize competitions spur innovation that government bureaucracies can't?
toledoblade.com: Business nearer to private flights
news.bbc.co.uk: Prize flights: Making aviation history
chicagotribune.com: (subscription) Prize puts eyes on next frontier
theage.com.au: The great leap up
theage.com.au: Pioneering space history

SpaceShipOne Articles Update

2004-06-19T23:01:00.000Z

Because we traced 144 news releases between now and the last articles update, I won't be able to post them all ;).
It's amazing to see how many news papers arround the world are writing stories about the space race compared to few days ago.

A few articles:
heraldtribune.com: Attempt set for first private manned spaceflight
story.news.yahoo.com: Private, Manned Spacecraft Set for Launch
wane.com: Private space craft readying for launch
nbc4columbus.com: Private Space Craft Prepared For Launch
xposed.com: First Private Manned Spaceshot Attempt Set
firstcoastnews.com: Private Rocket Ready for Launch
sundayherald.com: One small step for the private enterprise spacemen (Nice title ;))
telegraph.co.uk: Up tiddlee up up

Space race encounters forks in road

2004-06-19T14:40:00.000Z

FORKS -- Despite a glitch in their test flight on Wednesday, the Olympic Peninsula's top rocket scientists are not daunted -- not by any technical setbacks, Paul Allen's money or the fact that most people may think they don't have a snowball's chance of winning the X Prize.
"I think we're pretty competitive," said Eric Meier, 26, the mechanical engineering half of Space Transport Corporation of Forks. He smiled optimistically while bolting together one of six 10-foot long tubes that will hold solid fuel for STC's "Rubicon" rocket.
"Our approach is a lot simpler," added Phil Storm, also 26 years old and the other half of this budding space travel company located here in the soggy heart of timber country. Storm's specialty is in the mathematics, electronics and computing of the rocket, although both of them do a little bit of everything.
While some may scoff at the chance of two young men in Forks succeeding in an international space race, there are a few reasons not to: They are, actually, rocket scientists; and, the experts also scoffed at Charles Lindbergh and at those two bicycle repairmen/brothers from Ohio named Wright.
Both Storm and Meier previously worked as engineers at Aerojet Corp. in Redmond -- a company that inspects and repairs engines for the space shuttle and various other space vehicles.
Meier also put in a summer stint at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., in 1998.
"At first, people in town were kind of skeptical about them," said local businessman Don Grafstrom. But once Meier and Storm made their pitch, Grafstrom said, the town adopted them like long lost sons. Read More

SpaceShipOne Articles Update

2004-06-19T14:29:00.000Z

newsfromrussia.com: SpaceShipOne to try for space
All spaceflight is risky, any expert will tell you. Maiden voyages can be particularly tricky, given all the unknowns. Even SpaceShipOne, a smooth-operating, trusty craft, had a mishap upon landing during a test flight last December.
But the lure to break the bonds of Earth is strong. So strong that in a survey of the more than 100 people who have paid deposits to eventually go into space on a suborbital tourist flight, more than two-thirds said that if given the chance they would hop aboard SpaceShipOne on Monday for its first attempt to reach the great beyond.

tvnz.co.nz: Private space rocket ready for launch
thestar.com: Voyage to edge of space
investors.com: Final Frontier: Private Enterprise Counts Down For Space Travel
kansas.com: Privately funded rocket, pilot set for trip to suborbital space

Alan Boyle: Who wants to go to space?

2004-06-19T14:26:00.000Z

Studies have indicated that thousands of people would eventually be willing to take suborbital rides like Monday's scheduled SpaceShipOne trip. But at what point does the allure of a rocket-powered thrill outweigh the perceived risk of catastrophic failure? If you had the money and the opportunity, would you take a passenger seat on Monday's flight?
Most of the folks who have already signed up for a future suborbital jaunt say they would, according to an informal survey by Space Adventures.
The Virginia-based company has collected deposits from more than 100 would-be space tourists — and claims the title of the world's first "spaceline." (That point is debatable.) In addition to its suborbital aspirations, Space Adventures already has helped put millionaires Dennis Tito and Mark Shuttleworth in orbit, and is currently working with inventor/entrepreneur Greg Olsen. There are even rumblings that the company may be involved in talks on a future space-themed reality-TV show. Read More

space.com: Monday's Private Spaceflight: Historical Milestone or Stunt Flying?

2004-06-19T14:22:00.000Z

A privately built rocket plane is ready to streak through the sky over Mojave, California desert on June 21. Project officials herald it as the first non-governmental piloted flight to leave the Earth's atmosphere.
Built by Scaled Composites of Mojave, California, SpaceShipOne is set to become the world’s first commercial manned space vehicle. Investor and philanthropist Paul Allen and aviation technologist Burt Rutan, head of Scaled Composites, have teamed to create the program.
If all goes according to plan, the hybrid motor-propelled rocket plane will carry its pilot some 62 miles (100 kilometers) into suborbital space above the Mojave Civilian Aerospace Test Center, a commercial airport in the California desert. Gliding to a landing strip stop, "it will signal that the space frontier is finally open to private enterprise," explains a Scaled Composites release about the flight. Read More

SpaceDev Shares Soar Along With SpaceShipOne

2004-06-19T00:18:00.000Z

Shares in SpaceDev soared to an all-time high today in anticipation of the first privately financed manned space flight on Monday.

The aerospace firm designed and built the hybrid rocket motor that, if the mission is successful, will propel flight pioneer Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne into suborbital space and history.

The dart-like aircraft, built and operated by Rutan's Scaled Composites Inc., is expected to fly to the edge of space, about 100 kilometers, or 62 miles, above the Earth's surface. The United States awards astronaut status to anyone who flies above 50 miles in altitude.

The SpaceDev rocket motor, which literally burns rubber for fuel, has been used in three earlier test flights of SpaceShipOne in preparation for the June 21 event at the Mojave Airport. On May 13, the rocket plane climbed to 211,400 feet, more than 40 miles above the Earth. Read More

SpaceShipOne Articles update

2004-06-19T00:06:00.000Z

Because of the large amounth of news releases, I'll only post the links to the articles, no short preview.

abcnews.go.com: Private Rocket Plane Aiming for Space Flight Prize
reuters.co.uk: (same article) Private Rocket Plane Aiming for Space Flight Prize
truthnews.net: World: First Private Manned Space Mission Set To Blast Off
ktok.com: First Private, Returnable Spaceflight Expected Next Week
wbex.com: (same article) First Private, Returnable Spaceflight Expected Next Week
ascribe.org: Wichita State Alumnus Part of Historic Privately Financed Space Flight
nature.com: Private rocket aims for the stars
linuxinsider.com: Space Travel Ready To Go Private

Alan's Mojave Airport Weblog update

2004-06-19T00:02:00.000Z

June 18, 2004 - The FAA today designated Mojave Airport as America's first inland spaceport, in advance of Monday's launch attempt by Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne. As soon as the designation was announced, airport crews got busy putting up signs on both the old and new control towers.

He also included very nice pictures:
http://www.mojavebooks.com/mhv/photos/040618/aerial-with-legends-2.jpg
http://www.mojavebooks.com/mhv/photos/040618/aerial-with-legends.jpg
http://www.mojavebooks.com/mhv/photos/040618/spaceport-sign-2-7.jpg
http://www.mojavebooks.com/mhv/photos/040618/spaceport-sign-3-8.jpg
http://www.mojavebooks.com/mhv/photos/040618/spaceport-sign-6.jpg

Space.com: Big Secret: Who Will Fly SpaceShipOne?

2004-06-18T22:33:00.000Z

Who is piloting the first non-governmental rocket ship in an attempt next week to fly to the edge of space?
According to sources close to the project, the decision by those in the know at Scaled Composites - operators of the privately-built SpaceShipOne - remains a tight-lipped, vacuum packed secret.
The chosen pilot - picked from among a small cadre of previously announced Scaled Composites astronauts - is to be revealed at a press conference to be held this Sunday, the day before the slated June 21st flight of the rocket plane.
The flight-worthy four are: Brian Binnie, Mike Melvill, Doug Shane, and Pete Siebold.
Of that group, Mike Melvill has chalked up the most time behind the controls of SpaceShipOne, counting captive flights, freefall glides and the last powered flight of the craft. He has worked for Burt Rutan for over 26 years and has some 24 years of experience as an experimental test pilot.
However, out of the last three rocket-powered flights, Pete Siebold, Brian Binnie, as well as Melvill have each taken their turns at punching the rocket motor start button. More Info

Space Adventures Announces Results of Suborbital Client Survey

2004-06-18T22:31:00.000Z

Close to 70% would fly on the inaugural SpaceShipOne suborbital spaceflight
Space Adventures, Ltd., the world's leading space experiences company, announced today the results of an informal survey of the over 100 people who have paid deposits to fly on a suborbital vehicle.
The survey was conducted exclusively with individuals who have paid at least a $10,000 (USD) deposit for the flight that will ultimately cost $102,000 (USD). Results from the survey that was administered on June 15 -17, 2004 include:
Would you be willing to fly on SpaceShipOne if a seat were made available on the first flight?
69% I'd be on the first flight
19% Not the first flight, but one soon after
12% I'd like to see a few more flights first
Click here for more...

space.com: Ready for Historic Launch: FAA Grants Mojave Airport First Inland Spaceport License

2004-06-18T21:14:00.000Z

Space.com: The Mojave Airport Civilian Test Center in Mojave, California is proudly displaying on their web site that they are "America's First Inland Spaceport" after receiving official licensing by the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of the Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation (AST).
A launch site operator license was granted to the Mojave Airport on June 17.
"We got it," exclaimed Stuart Witt, Mojave Airport manager. "It's nice to be first," Witt told SPACE.com.
The paperwork has cleared government in-and-out-box procedures just in time.
The civilian Mojave Airport is takeoff point for the record-setting attempt by SpaceShipOne as the first non-governmental rocket ship to fly to the edge of space.
That piloted suborbital leap by the Scaled Composites-built rocket plane is slated for Monday, June 21.

UPDATE: Alan boyle also wrote an article related to this news:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5236958/

XPrize.org: ROMANIAN TEAM ANNOUNCES TEST FLIGHT INTENTIONS

2004-06-18T21:06:00.000Z

XPrize.org reports: ARCA Team Leader Dumitru Popescu announced today that his Ansari X PRIZE demonstrator vehicle is moving forward to the flight test stage. According to the team's press release, the "World's first composite materials reusable monopropellant rocket engine will be flight tested in July on board the Demonstrator 2-B rocket. The first flight will be made below 10 km, mainly because of the launch site restrictions." ARCA plans for this technology to be used on the ORIZONT, its Ansari X PRIZE vehicle, with manned flights starting with the next year.

XPrize.org: SPACE RACE LIFTS OFF!

2004-06-18T21:05:00.000Z

XPrize.org reports:
Motels for miles around will be filled. Campers will line the roads in competition for the best viewing spot. Traffic will be a mess. It's not the old Cape Canaveral, but it will seem like it. CNN will broadcast live the first attempt to launch a general aviation pilot into space out of Mojave, California. The launch aircraft with SpaceShipOne underneath will taxi from its hangar at 6:30 a.m. Pacific time on Monday, June 21. The goal is 328,084 feet (100 kilometers), the altitude at which "space" officially begins. Monday's flight will not orbit the Earth, however. SpaceShipOne, a craft built by Burt Rutan and the team of Vulcan, Inc., funded by Vulcan owner Paul G. Allen, made it to 211,400 feet on May 13. There are 500 media representatives signed up to cover Monday's event.

Mojave Airport Americas First Inland Spaceport

2004-06-18T20:55:00.000Z

Mojave Airport is officially Americas First Inland Spaceport
Launch Site Operator License # LSO 04 009

For more information take a look at http://www.mojaveairport.com/

Next SpaceShipOne Articles update

2004-06-18T18:18:00.000Z

Articles:
rferl.org: First Private Manned Space Mission Set To Blast Off
A commercial aerospace company is planning to launch the first private manned mission to space. If successful, the spacecraft's creators will be a step closer to winning a $10 million dollar offered as an incentive for private industry to catch up with government space programs. But can the private sector really reinvigorate space exploration as some backers claim?
On 21 June, a unique space mission is set to take off from the Mojave Desert in the U.S. state of California.
First, an elegant airplane called the "White Knight" will take off from the runway with a three-person spacecraft slung under its belly. About 15 kilometers over the desert, the spacecraft, called "SpaceShipOne," will detach from the larger carrier plane and fire its rockets, blasting off to an altitude of 100 kilometers -- the edge of space. It will spend just three minutes outside the Earth's atmosphere, and then coast back down to the airport where crowds of spectators will be waiting.

ecommercetimes.com: Space Travel Ready To Go Private
"SpaceShipOne already has some impressive successes on the way to space, and I think it has a good chance of making it the rest of the way," said Marc Rayman, director of NASA's DeepSpace 1 mission, which successfully tested a new spacecraft propulsion system and other technologies.
Commercial aviation began within a decade of the Wright Brothers' 1903 flight at Kitty Hawk. Yet 43 years after Yuri Gagarin's first manned space flight, you still can't book a seat on a regularly scheduled spaceship.
Weather and technology permitting, the era of commercial manned space flight finally may open next week, when the first privately developed rocket plane is scheduled to launch into history.

upi.com: Space Race II: A 'private' astronaut
A series by United Press International exploring the people, passions and business of sub-orbital manned spaceflight.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., June 18 (UPI) -- Like many kids growing up in the 1960s and early '70s, Peter Diamandis dreamed of becoming an astronaut. Actually, he did more than dream.
At the soulful age of 9, with the Apollo 13 drama unfolding on national television, shy little Peter sat in his fourth-grade science class in Mount Vernon, N.Y, listening to a classmate present a report about planets.
"In that moment I felt like there was nothing more important in the world than exploring space," said Diamandis, now 43. Everything in my life became about space. Every school book I owned I littered with doodles of rockets and far-away planets."
So he followed the path of all ambitious, bright students who wanted to fly in space and got himself accepted at a prestigious university -- the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Then Diamandis topped his undergraduate and master's degrees with a medical degree from Harvard. He confesses the med school bit was his parents' idea, but once he realized becoming a doctor would help his chances of being accepted into the astronaut corps, he went along with their wishes.
Then something very sobering happened: an astronaut told him the straight scoop about life at NASA.
"First off, he told me your chances of getting in to the astronaut corps are maybe one in 1,000, and even if you are accepted your chances of flying are 50-50. To get to fly you have to be very well-behaved, you have to do and say everything you are told, and you have to follow the rules. Then, if you're lucky, you might get two flights during your career," Diamandis told United Press International.

Some other articles

2004-06-18T14:29:00.000Z

Articles:
smh.com.au: Bucket-shop rocket will shoot for the final frontier
Tourism's final frontier is ready to take one giant leap.
On Monday night, Sydney time, a century after Orville Wright's first flight and 43 years after Yuri Gagarin orbited Earth, a man will attempt to become the first person to reach space aboard a privately owned rocketship.
The unnamed pilot won't go into orbit, and the trip will last just 30 minutes. But if all goes well he will rise 100 kilometres in a craft named SpaceShipOne, enjoying three minutes of weightlessness.
"I believe the Government is the reason it's unaffordable to fly into space," says SpaceShipOne's designer, Burt Rutan. "Their help causes cost problems. I want to ... show it can be cheap."
If SpaceShipOne twice repeats the achievement, making two flights carrying three people in two weeks, Rutan will win the $14 million X-Prize offered in 1996 by a St Louis foundation to "jump-start the space tourism industry". Rutan, president of Scaled Composites, a company that develops revolutionary aircraft, says a ticket could cost less than $115,000.

newscientist.com: Civilian craft ready to make space history
On Monday, just a few months after the hundredth anniversary of the Wright Brothers' first flight, another historic flight may be added to the record books - the first civilian space flight.
The craft that will make the attempt, SpaceShipOne, is built by aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan and his company Scaled Composites,. He believes the flight could mark the start of another new age, in which spaceflight could become as commonplace as today's air travel.
Rutan's sleek little two-part rocket system is a far cry from the converted missiles that began the age of human spaceflight, and from the astoundingly complex space shuttles that require thousands of full-time workers to keep them flying. If the shuttle can be likened to a cargo truck, then the new craft is like a sports car.
The craft will launch on its maiden voyage into space with just a pilot on board, although it is designed to also carry two passengers. Assuming the flight succeeds, the as-yet-unnamed pilot will become the first person ever enter space on a non-government-funded rocket, and thus become the first true civilian astronaut.

Space.com: Viewer's Guide to Monday's First Piloted Private Space Flight

2004-06-18T13:49:00.000Z

The public is invited to watch history made Monday when a company called Scaled Composites attempts to launch the first piloted commercial vehicle into space.
Event planners expect a cosmic Woodstock. Motels in the area are mostly booked and plans are in place for an all-night party.
The flight of SpaceShipOne from an airport-turned-spaceport in California's Mojave Desert is scheduled to begin shortly after 9:30 a.m. ET (6:30 local time). Company officials expect a smooth flight, but anyone who follows the space industry knows that every flight has inherent risks.
Weather permitting, the craft will be carried aloft aboard the White Knight, a somewhat conventional airplane built specially for this purpose. An hour after taking off from the Mojave Airport, at about 50,000 feet, the White Knight will release SpaceShipOne, whose pilot will fire a rocket, powered by rubber and laughing gas, for about 80 seconds.
SpaceShipOne should soar to 62 miles (100 kilometers), crossing the threshold of space on a suborbital trajectory. The pilot, who has not yet been named, would officially become an astronaut.
According to plan, the craft will spend about three minutes in weightlessness, then glide back to Earth. It will land about 1 hour and 25 minutes after the initial takeoff in the same location.
The launch is planned for early morning because winds tend to pick up later in the day. Weather could scrub the launch, possibly pushing it back a day or more. Read More

Also on space.com: Edge Of Space Before SpaceShipOne (history)

SpaceShipOne Articles update

2004-06-18T12:49:00.000Z

Articles:
nynewsday.com: ‘X’ marks the spot for private rocket contestA stubby rocket plane, fueled by rubber and laughing gas, is to be launched Monday in an attempt to send a human to suborbital space for the first time in a privately funded vehicle.
The trip would provide the pilot a brief period of weightlessness, about three to four minutes, as the craft climbs about three times the speed of sound toward an altitude of 62 miles.
While a far cry from the more demanding challenge of sending a craft into orbit around the Earth, the upcoming flight is being touted as a first step toward creating a new space tourism industry.

wired.com: Regular Folks to Kiss the Sky
Something big is supposed to happen in the sky above the California desert town of Mojave early Monday. Just after dawn, a spindly white jet plane is scheduled to ascend from an airstrip with a rocket ship slung beneath it. The pair, resembling a dragonfly mating with a winged bratwurst, will climb to an altitude of nearly 10 miles.
After that, history: The jet, dubbed White Knight by creator Burt Rutan, will release the craft, called SpaceShipOne. The ship’s pilot will ignite its engine for an 80-second burn designed to boost the craft to three times the speed of sound. Then, SpaceShipOne is expected to soar to 100 kilometers (about 62 miles) above the Earth’s surface and pop across the threshold of space before gliding back to Mojave.

gazettetimes.com: First private, returnable spaceflight expected next week
Early next week, if all goes well, America's long quest for dominance in space will reach a new milestone high above the Mojave Desert in California.
The proceeds from a mighty software fortune will launch the first commercial astronaut into space.
SpaceShipOne, a rocket plane developed by aircraft designer Burt Rutan and financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, will burn a trajectory 62 miles high, well beyond the atmospheric boundaries of Earth. Its astronaut will become the first to reach space without the benefit of NASA, Houston mission control, or a penny of government support.

zwire.com: Early next week, if all goes well, America's long quest for dominance in space will reach a new milestone high above the Mojave Desert in California.
The proceeds from a mighty software fortune will launch the first commercial astronaut into space.
Advertisement
SpaceShipOne, a rocket plane developed by aircraft designer Burt Rutan and financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, will burn a trajectory 62 miles high, well beyond the atmospheric boundaries of Earth. Its astronaut will become the first to reach space without the benefit of NASA, Houston mission control, or a penny of government support.

Space flight: the new extreme sport

2004-06-18T01:15:00.000Z

Launching into outer space is the next extreme sport, according to Brian Feeney, Team Leader of the DaVinci Project, one of 27 teams competing in the X-Prize. Initiated in 1996, the X-Prize is an international competition to design, build and develop a craft capable of launching three people 100 km into space, return them safely, and repeat the achievement with the same vehicle within two weeks. The X-Prize founder, Peter H. Diamandis, predicts that the competition will be won in the next few months. In fact, SpaceShipOne, a California based contender has set a June 21 launch date. Two Canadian teams, the Toronto based DaVinci Project and the London based Canadian Arrow, are rising to the challenge.
The $10 million prize is based on an insurance system that expires on January 1, 2005. If no team has won by that date, the cash reward is revoked.
To date, the DaVinci Project has received over $4 million in cash and in kind services and materials. Currently 200 members are actively involved, although over 500 people have participated over the project's lifetime. The current plan is to have a helium balloon carry the vehicle to a height of 24,400 metres, before the rest of the vehicle proceeds to its destination height of 100 km. At 85 km, the self-stabilizing spherical capsule separates. Each piece has its own parachute system, complete with redundancy for safety. The selected launch site, the Kindersley Airport in Saskatchewan, was chosen due to safety considerations, regional support and favourable weather conditions that provide a high number of possible launch days. Read More

BoingBoing blog reporting from Mojave

2004-06-18T00:01:00.000Z

boingboing.net reports:
Hi all, The folks at MHV are continuing to get the various sites ready for the influx of people, who seem to already be arriving. Several RVs drove slowly down the flightline.
The White Knight, which was doing a number of touch and goes day before yesterday, was out doing maintenance runs today.
Yesterday's update generated a couple of questions:
1 -- Can a person sleep in their car on the airport overnight Sunday night? No. The general parking area won't open till 3am. Only self-contained RVs will be allowed on the airport overnight. There is a large open lot across Hwy 58 from where big-rig trucks usually overnight, and that might be an option. I do understand, however, that a number of people plan on lining up on the shoulder of 58 around midnight. Don't know if they'll get chased away or not. There's a CHP (California Highway Patrol, for you out-of-staters) station adjacent to the airport, so they may be out in force. Read More

XPrize.org: PRE-LAUNCH CELEBRATION SUNDAY EVENING IN MOJAVE

2004-06-17T23:50:00.000Z

On Sunday night, all are welcome to an informal tailgate party sponsored by the National Space Society (NSS). Celebrate the historic launch with old and new friends near the RV area at the airport. Check the website, www.nss.org, for more information. It's the place to be on Sunday night!

The National Space Society's vision is people living and working in thriving communities beyond the Earth. NSS members promote change in social, technical, economic, and political conditions to advance the day when people will live and work in space.

XPrize.org: PRESIDENTIAL SPACE COMMISSION CALLS FOR SPACE PRIZES

2004-06-17T23:49:00.000Z

The President's Commission on Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy calls on Congress to create "significant monetary prizes for the accomplishment of space missions and/or technology developments..." In addition the report strongly endorses the NASA Centennial Challenges prize program.
The 9 person Commission, Chaired by Edward Aldridge, Jr. and which included such luminaries as Carly Fionna of HP, lunar expert Paul Spudis and astronomer Neil Tyson mention prizes no less than 17 times in their 60-page report (X PRIZE is twice mentioned in this report issued on June 16)."
The report also contains frank and refreshing acknowledgement of the risks inherent in space exploration and the need for open and honest communication about risk a position that the X PRIZE Foundation has taken since its inception.
Peter Diamandis, Erik Lindbergh and Gregg Maryniak received a copy of the report at the first NASA Centennial Challenges Workshop held this week in Washington, DC. They spoke to the more than 200 attendees in addition to moderating panels on prizes for future human spaceflight prizes, bioastronautics prizes, as well as prizes for development of beamed power and space resource utilization technologies. In addition, Elon Musk (a member of the New Spirit of St. Louis Organization and founder of the new rocket company Space X) provided a keynote address on the importance of prizes as a tool to rejuvenate the aerospace industry.

Some other articles

2004-06-17T22:49:00.000Z

SpaceShipOne related articles:
csmonitor.com: Out on the Mojave: space shot for the common man
Down Route 58, past tangles of scrub brush and 20 miles of landscape that ripples in the heat of the high California desert, America took its first steps into the space age in the 1960s.
For the generation of test pilots who would become America's first astronauts, this was the launching pad for the impossible - where machines took humans faster and higher than ever before.
Monday morning, as the sun creeps over the umber edge of the San Gabriel mountains, a local engineer famous for his independent attitude and revolutionary ideas will seek to take that spirit into the 21st century. If all goes as planned, his SpaceShipOne will shoot straight up - 62 miles above the Mojave sand to where the sky is as black as shale - and for the first time a human will reach space unaided by any government. Read More

newsday.com: Rocket plane scheduled for Mon. launch
A stubby rocket plane, fueled by rubber and laughing gas, is to be launched Monday in an attempt to send a human to the edge of space for the first time in a privately funded vehicle.
The suborbital trip would provide the pilot a brief period of weightlessness, about three to four minutes, as the craft climbs at about three times the speed of sound toward an altitude of 62 miles.
While a far cry from the more demanding challenge of sending a craft into orbit around the Earth, the upcoming flight is being touted as a first step toward creating a new space tourist industry.
Burt Rutan, the aerospace entrepreneur who built the rocket plane, called SpaceShipOne, is among the entrants in a competition for the $10-million Ansari X Prize, backed by private donors. It is modeled after such prizes as the $25,000 Orteig Prize that inspired Charles Lindbergh's 1927 solo trans-Atlantic flight. Rutan's project is being funded by Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen. Read More

And also nynewsday.com reports the same article as newsday.com: Rocket plane scheduled for Mon. launch

SpaceShipOne Articles Update

2004-06-17T17:30:00.000Z

SpaceShipOne Articles:
Wired.com: Regular Folks to Kiss the Sky
Something big is supposed to happen in the sky above the California desert town of Mojave early Monday. Just after dawn, a spindly white jet plane is scheduled to ascend from an airstrip with a rocket ship slung beneath it. The pair, resembling a dragonfly mating with a winged bratwurst, will climb to an altitude of nearly 10 miles.
After that, history: The jet, dubbed White Knight by creator Burt Rutan, will release the craft, called SpaceShipOne. The ship’s pilot will ignite its engine for an 80-second burn designed to boost the craft to three times the speed of sound. Then, SpaceShipOne is expected to soar to 100 kilometers (about 62 miles) above the Earth’s surface and pop across the threshold of space before gliding back to Mojave. Read More

nzherald.co.nz: Counting down to a new space race
The early days of aviation must have looked a little like this: an enthusiastic crowd of thousands of people heading out to a remote airfield at the crack of dawn to watch a sleek metal contraption, the likes of which they have never seen, daring to perform new, untested stunts.
Such a scene is expected at Mojave airport in the desert 100 miles north of Los Angeles on Monday morning (local time), as one of the most innovative aviation companies in the business attempts the world's first non-governmental manned spacecraft flight. The Woodstock of space, some people are calling it. Read More

MSNBC: The New Space Race

2004-06-17T16:16:00.000Z

(via hobbyspace.com) MSNBC created a new site section: The New Race To Space Gold rush on the final frontier;
which holds links to its articles on the SS1 and other X PRIZE related events...

Space.com: Armadillo Scores Test Liftoff Success In Bid For X Prize

2004-06-17T16:13:00.000Z

A sky-high success has been reported by Armadillo Aerospace of Mesquite, Texas. The group scored a perfect test flight June 15 of prototype hardware as part of their X Prize project, the Black Armadillo.
Armadillo is one group among over two dozen teams from seven nations trying to win the Ansari X Prize – a $10 million offering that expires on January 1, 2005.
That cash purse will go to the first team that privately finances, builds and launches a craft capable of hauling three individuals up to 62.5 miles (100 kilometers) altitude, returns safely to Earth, then duplicates that suborbital flight with the same vehicle in the span of two weeks.
Leading Armadillo’s bid to snag the X Prize is John Carmack, co-founder and chief technical engineer of id Software. He admits to being a long-time rocketry enthusiast, anxious to send civilians into space.
"The flight was perfect. It went 131 feet high, and landed less than one foot from the launch point," Carmack reported on his publicly accessible web site. "It can easily do flights three times as long, which may show up some problems before we hit them with the big vehicle." Read More

Starchaser: ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEM (ECLSS) update

2004-06-17T12:01:00.000Z

The Environmental Control Life Support Systems (ECLSS) is a green cylindrical test chamber, measuring approximately 2m x 1.5m, which has been designed to monitor four physical parameters: carbon dioxide (CO2), oxygen (O), temperature and relative humidity, in replicating the physical environment required for travel into space.

Intially, up to three Starchaser personnel at a time spent up to two hours sealed into the ECLSS test chamber. In order to push the system still further 1 volunteer was strapped in for a record breaking 6 hour stint.

The remit, over the period of one day, was to monitor an ECLSS volunteer so that variations in a number of biological parameters could be measured. These included pulse, respiration, ECG, non-invasive blood pressure (NBP), end tidal carbon dioxide (etCO2), pulse oximetry (SpO), and temperature (of the body and the ECLSS chamber).

The system worked perfectly and the volunteer emerged, stiff from sitting for so long, but happy and well. Further tests will be carried out once all the data has been evaluated.

Starchaser: THUNDERSTAR Capsule update

2004-06-17T12:00:00.000Z

Work is progressing with the prototype capsule. The primary structural members have been mocked-up in wood and the pressure hull has been formed using glass composites. One of the main projects is the definition of the hatch, in support of this project the prototype capsule has been constructed with a removable hatch section to allow a number of different hatch concepts to be investigated, the current concept features a round hatch.

While the THUNDERSTAR capsule is being designed/engineered using CAD software there is no substitute for a physical mock up when it comes to human interfaces. We need to make sure the crew can enter and exit the capsule in both nominal and emergency conditions. As the capsule evolves the mock-up will be used to help layout instrumentation and controls.

The mock-up will also be used to test the life support system, as it’s a true representation of the THUNDERSTAR capsule in terms of volume and the available space for equipment and the oxygen supply.

SpaceShipOne Updates

2004-06-17T11:44:00.000Z

Articles:
- csmonitor.com: Tax Breaks for Private Spaceships
On June 21, outer space may no longer be a frontier only for wealthy governments
For the first time, a private piloted craft will try to reach the black edge of space, rocketing upward 62 miles in a historymaking suborbital flight.
The timing is perfect. This week, a White House commission recommended NASA's missions be supplemented by private entities, which could be supported by such incentives as tax breaks.
The huge costs and risks of space travel aren't for the faint of wallet. In fact, next week's flight, by a craft called SpaceShipOne, is backed by Paul Allen, the billionaire cofounder of Microsoft. The flight is one of many planned by groups vying for a $10 million private prize set up in 1996 to reward the first private space flight.
- BBC.co.uk: Burt Rutan: Aviation pioneer
For more than 20 years, American businessman Burt Rutan has been behind some of the oddest and most innovative planes around.
In the US, he is considered by some experts to be a national treasure, one of the few creative pioneers who has made a real difference to aerospace advancement.
When the US government wanted to test a fairly high-risk engine concept recently, Rutan wanted to be the test pilot.
He was only prevented from doing so because the government did not want to run the risk of losing him. That is how much of a precious commodity he is considered to be.
It is his company - Scaled Composites - that is responsible for SpaceShipOne, the Ansari X-prize contender.
This vehicle has been closer to space than any non-governmental manned craft, and is hot favourite to win the prize this year.
- billingsgazette.com: U.S. tycoon will test rocket for future of space tourism
SEATTLE, Wash. - Billion-aire Paul Allen says he "sure wouldn't mind" taking a ride someday in the spaceship he paid to have built in the California desert.
"But you have to understand, you have test pilots flying this thing right now," the co-founder of Microsoft said. "You want to prove out these things and use it many times before you'd want to have passengers on board."
Space tourism "is around the corner, but it's not here yet," Allen, 51, said in a rare interview.
On Monday, Allen's rocket ship, called SpaceShipOne, is expected to try to reach suborbital space. If successful, it would be the first private, manned spaceship to leave the earth's atmosphere.

(via hobbyspace.com)SS1 flight memorabilia could become a top collectable for space enthusiasts according to Robert Pearlman of collectSpace. He tells Alan Boyle - Space race update - Alan Boyle/MSNBC - June.16.04
"The appeal of philatelic material or other collectibles (mini SS1 models, medallions, patches, etc.), not to mention any piece of the actual craft that is expendable/replaceable, will be of interest to space collectors..."

- Scaled has moved the info on live coverage to the Q&A section. (if you haven't noticed yet, there is a new webdesign on their site)

SpaceShipOne preping for space

2004-06-17T02:01:00.000Z

(via hobbyspace.com)Via a Mojavian comes this local report on preparations for the SS1 flight event next Monday:
- "Organizers are preparing for 30,000 visitors"
- "On the day of the flight's announcement, the Scaled Composites Web site received millions of queries"
- "Hotels in Mojave are already booked solid, with rooms filling up in more distant communities such as Lancaster."
- "A camping area has been cleared to park 250 self-contained recreational vehicles, with campers allowed to enter the grounds beginning Saturday night. Reservations are required for these $40 spots, and they are filling fast. As of Tuesday afternoon, 160 spots remained."
- "Already, "space groupies" have requested permission for a concert in the camping area Sunday night, adding to the festival-like atmosphere."
- "Ridgecrest radio station KLOA 104.9 FM will provide a play-by-play broadcast of the flight and traffic reports for those heading to the airport."
- "For those unable to attend, the flight will be covered live by numerous broadcasters, including CNN and the national networks. Some 400 different media outlets from around the world are expected to cover the event, Rice said." Read More (short-lived link)

Countdown to the new space race

2004-06-17T01:56:00.000Z

Until now, the US space shuttle or the Russian Soyuz provided the only means of getting off the planet. But next week, Paul Allen and Ray Rutan (above) are planning to change all that. Andrew Gumbel reports from Los Angeles

The early days of aviation must have looked a little like this: an enthusiastic crowd of thousands of people heading out to a remote airfield at the crack of dawn to watch a sleek metal contraption, the likes of which they have never seen, daring to perform new, untested stunts.
Such a scene is expected at Mojave airport in the desert 100 miles north of Los Angeles on Monday morning, as one of the most innovative aviation companies in the business attempts the world's first non-governmental manned spacecraft flight. The Woodstock of space, some people are calling it.
At around 6.30am - after the runways have been cleared of endangered desert tortoises - a spaceship strapped to the underside of a custom-built aircraft will fly up to an altitude of 50,000ft and then, if all goes according to plan, blast off on its own to pierce the atmosphere 62 miles above the Earth's surface and float at least briefly in gravity-free weightlessness before re-entering and landing back where it started. The whole event is expected to last about 25 minutes. It is the most dramatic stage yet in a competition known as the Ansari X prize, in which aviation specialists and technology freaks the world over have been invited to find a way to make commercial space travel possible. As many as 26 teams have been vying furiously for the $10m (£5.5m) prize money, but by common consent it is the team headed by the aviation veteran Burt Rutan and his deep-pocketed patron, the Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, that is already way out front in the race. Even if it is successful, Monday's flight will not be the end of the competition, since it will be undertaken by a single pilot (who has yet to be named). Competition rules stipulate that the winner of the prizemust send three people up to the 100km limit - not once, but twice in a two-week period. The offer lapses at the end of the year, so the ticking clock is adding an extra layer of suspense to the whole operation. Read More

Captains of space industry

2004-06-16T14:53:00.000Z

Who’s who of entrepreneurs in the “alt.space” movement ?
Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal. Now founder and chief executive of SpaceX, company trying to reduce access to space through cheap satellite launches.
Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft. Now financial backer of Scaled Composites, a company trying to build a cheap suborbital spacecraft.
Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive of Amazon.com. Now behind Blue Origin, a company developing vehicles and technologies that will enable an “enduring human presence in space”.
Dennis Tito, financial entrepreneur, became the world’s first space tourist in April 2001 by paying nearly £20m to launch aboard a Russian rocket to the International Space Station. Interested in investing in suborbital vehicle if the American government can establish a stable and workable regulatory environment.
Steve Kirsch, founder and former chairman of Infoseek. Donor to the Mars Direct project, to simulate Mars exploration on Earth.
Robert Bigelow, entrepreneur and owner of Budget Suites of America hotel chain. Founder of Bigelow Aerospace, which claims it is on schedule to launch an inflatable space structure, Genesis Pathfinder, next year.
John Carmack, software programmer behind the games “Doom” and “Quake”, whose small research and development team, Armadillo Aerospace, is working on computer-controlled hydrogen peroxide rocket vehicles with an eye towards developing X Prize-winning vehicles.
Richard Branson, British music-to-airlines entrepreneur, recently claimed to be investing in a space-tourism venture, without giving many details.

Space.com: Rocket Science: Reaching for Space with Rubber Fuel

2004-06-16T14:50:00.000Z

For SpaceShipOne, reaching space takes three things: a pilot, a spacecraft, and enough to propellant to rocket away from Earth.
But the fuel in SpaceShipOne's tank is about as exotic as the spacecraft's design. SpaceShipOne, set to be the first non-governmental crewed vehicle to reach space, uses a combination of rubber and nitrous oxide -- also known as laughing gas -- as the powerhouse for test flights and an anticipated suborbital spaceshot set for June 21.
"These are all state of the art technologies," said Jim Benson, founding chairman and chief executive of SpaceDev, of SpaceShipOne's fuel process. "It's a very stable and non-toxic system."
Based in Poway, California, SpaceDev is responsible for refueling SpaceShipOne after each flight as well providing crucial elements of its hybrid rocket engine, a cross between traditional liquid and solid rocket motors.
SpaceShipOne was designed by aerospace veteran Burt Rutan and his Mojave, California-based firm Scaled Composites. The craft is one of 26 teams vying for the Ansari X Prize competition to privately build a vehicle capable of transporting three people 62 miles (100 kilometers) above Earth twice in two weeks, with the winner snagging a $10 million purse. Read More

An other article: economist.com: Enterprise prepares for lift-off

Extra Armadillo Aerospace News: Perfect test flight

2004-06-16T10:27:00.000Z

The new actuator covers worked out great. We made these by hand, but we also finally got around to getting a sheet metal roll / brake / shear for the shop to make this type of thing easier in the future.
http://media.armadilloaerospace.com/2004_06_15/newCovers.jpg
There was intermittent rain around Dallas today, but we decided to head out to our test site and hope for the best anyway. We taped over all the exposed holes in the vehicle, but it turned out that we only caught a few drops on the way over, and the test site was fine. Since we had a test out there only two and a half weeks ago, we already had some of the gear ready, and we didn’t forget anything this time. We had the vehicle loaded up and ready to go within 30 minutes of arriving.
http://media.armadilloaerospace.com/2004_06_15/loading.jpg
We pressurized the tank to 300 psi, which is a little high for the threaded end closures on these tanks, and we could hear a small pressure leak as the O-ring unloaded a bit.
The engine warmed up predictably, adding further evidence for the benefit of a compressed hot catalyst pack (although we did lose some thrust after compressing it). Something that we noticed this time was that there was still some cloudiness in the exhaust while I brought it up to temperature, but after it had sat for a couple seconds before I started it back up again for the launch it was completely clear. It is likely that there is some path that was channeling enough propellant to self cool at steady state, but after letting it heat soak a bit from the surrounding catalyst, it was uniformly at operating temperature. We can probably use this effect to shorten our warm-ups by warming for a few seconds, then pausing for a couple seconds. Read More

Also don't forget to visit: http://www.xprize.com/messageboard/viewtopic.php?t=396&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
for manny questions answered by John Carmack, you're also free to ask your own questions.

Space race economics

2004-06-15T20:46:00.000Z

via hobbyspace.com; Alan Boyle comments on the economics of commercial space tourism: Space race economics - Alan Boyle/MSNBC
With SpaceShipOne poised to make its first flight across the official boundary of outer space, bottom-line questions are popping up: When will you be able to buy your own trip into space, how much will it cost, and who will sell you the ticket? Read More

Some other articles related to spaceshipone:
SFGate.com: Private space mission is ready for takeoff
tdn.com: Private spaceship ready for first flight
Financial Times Uk (Registrated users only): Pioneers aim to launch first commercial spacecraft

Official Armadillo Q&A thread

2004-06-15T18:23:00.000Z

John Carmack created an "Official Armadillo Q&A thread" on the Official ANSARI X PRIZE forums.
He'll also mention it in the next weekly update because it doesn't look like the Frontier Files Online diaries are going to ever get working again.
Everyone is free to share his thoughts or ask questions to John Carmack related to Armadillo Aerospace on the forum.
Questions related to his computer games or other comments not related to the ANSARI X PRIZE are not welcome and will be deleted without warning, as you all know, we have to let him "work" ;).
Before you can post, you'll have to register here.

HARC Website Update

2004-06-15T12:12:00.000Z

The HARC Team (High Altitude Research Corporation) has updated their website.
Check it out: http://www.harcspace.com/main.php?harcspace=1

Beside a new website, there is not really new information.

SpaceShipOne Related Press Articles

2004-06-15T11:48:00.000Z

Harleston: http://www.charleston.net/stories/061504/wor_15spaceship.shtml
Suborbital space: The final tourist frontier?
Think of it as an elaborate badminton shuttlecock. Put a pilot in it, take it up in the air and fire it 62 miles straight up into suborbital space at three times the speed of sound -- a spectacular trip undertaken with the knowledge that as the spacecraft plummets back to Earth, it will always be pointing in the right direction.
This elegantly simple precept underpins the aerodynamics of SpaceShipOne, a stubby rocket plane whose creators on June 21 plan to put a human in space for the first time without any government sponsorship or assistance.

ctnow.com: http://www.ctnow.com/news/local/hc-spaceship.artjun15,1,4340588.story?coll=hc-headlines-local
Successful Entrepreneurs Backing Teams Working To Launch Non-Government AstronautsEarly next week, if all goes well, America's long quest for dominance in space will reach a new milestone high above the Mojave Desert in California.
The proceeds from a mighty software fortune will launch the first commercial astronaut into space.
SpaceShipOne, a rocket plane developed by aircraft designer Burt Rutan and financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, will burn a trajectory 62 miles high, well beyond the atmospheric boundaries of Earth. Its astronaut will become the first to reach space without the benefit of NASA, Houston mission control, or a penny of government support.

npr.com: http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1957960
A Brief, Private Trip into Space
The Competition to Become First Commercial Manned Flight
A small company funded by Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen will attempt to send a person into space aboard a vehicle called SpaceShipOne. It's one of more than 20 groups competing for a $10 million prize for the first non-governmental manned space flight.

Futron/Zogby Public Travel Poll

2004-06-15T11:37:00.000Z

Washington, DC, May 20, 2002: Space travel is new exciting option for those who can afford it; 7% of affluent would pay $20 million for 2-week orbital flight; 19% would pay $100,000 for 15-minute sub-orbital flight.

A comprehensive and detailed study of interest in public space travel amongst affluent Americans indicates significant numbers would pay big bucks for the experience, a new poll by Zogby International reveals.
Commissioned by Futron Corporation, a Maryland-based aerospace consulting group, the poll was designed to measure level of interest in public space travel, the willingness to pay for specific space travel options, and an array of other relevant information concerning lifestyle choices, spending patterns and attitudes towards risk.
Zogby International conducted telephone interviews of 450 U.S. adults whose yearly incomes exceed $250,000 and/or net worth exceeds $1 million. All calls were made from Zogby International headquarters in Utica, N.Y., from January 6 through January 27, 2002. The margin of sampling error is +/- 4.7%. The survey participants were confined to those who could at least potentially afford the high prices of this leisure activity (which is expected to cost around $100,000 for the lowest cost package).
Results were obtained for sub-orbital flights, with the space tourists being rocketed 50 miles into space, at an assumed cost of $100,000, and experiencing much the same kind of 15-minute experience of exhilaration, weightlessness and seeing the Earth below, as did Alan Shepard, America's first astronaut. Up to 19% of those interviewed indicated that they would be likely to take part in such an experience when it becomes available to the public, assuming they could meet the medical and other requirements.

In the case of two-week orbital flights to an orbiting space station, a surprising 7% of those wealthy individuals polled said they would be willing to pay today's price tag of $20 million for the experience that so far only two space tourists, including Mark Shuttleworth who recently returned from orbit, have obtained. The figure approaches 16% if prices come down to a "mere" $5 million a ride. Read More

Scaled: June 21, 2004 Space Launch Event Updates

2004-06-15T11:32:00.000Z

June 10, 2004 - To make reservations for the motor home and camper parking near the public viewing area, please contact Tracey at the Mojave Airport by calling 661-824-2433 ext. 232. As of June 10, still plenty of spaces available. Please refer to the FAQ for more information.

June 14, 2004 - CNN is planning on broadcasting live coverage of the event. There are no current plans for a live internet stream.

Panel urges reducing NASA role in space launches

2004-06-14T20:11:00.000Z

A White House panel of space experts, wrestling with questions about how to pay for expeditions to the moon and Mars, wants NASA to give private companies a broader role and a greater share of the financial burden.
The presidential commission will recommend that NASA's role in missions be limited to ``areas where there is irrefutable demonstration that only government can perform the proposed activity,'' according to a summary of its conclusions obtained by The Associated Press.
...
It also will recommend that Congress offer prize money as incentives for scientists who accomplish space missions or develop helpful technology. Already, the X Prize Foundation is offering a $10 million prize for the first privately financed manned spaceflight. Read More

The New Astronauts: Magellans of the 21st Century

2004-06-14T20:09:00.000Z

The Guinness Book of World Records may need a new category by the end of 2004. X-Prize competitor SpaceShipOne makes its first publicly announced manned flight into space on June 21st...and then the modern space race REALLY begins!
The Ansari X-Prize competition is patterned after the more than 100 aviation prizes offered in the early 20th century that created today's $300 billion-dollar commercial air transport industry. To win the X-Prize, private teams must finance, build and then fly a three-person spacecraft 100 km (62 miles) to space, return safely, and then demonstrate the reusability of their vehicle by flying it again within two weeks.
Enter revolutionary SpaceDev, the Poway, California space solutions company. Since 1999, Jim Benson, founding Chairman and Chief Executive, and the SpaceDev propulsion team have been working with the engineers at Scaled Composites to create safe, inexpensive, private sector human space flight. Only a year after contracting with Scaled, SpaceDev successfully tested the world's largest hybrid rocket motor. The hybrid system is highly innovative, using nitrous oxide (N20), or laughing gas, as an oxidizer, and hydroxy-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB), or rubber, as the fuel. Both are low cost, in plentiful supply and can be safely transported and stored without special precautions, and will not explode when combined. SpaceDev supplied the rocket science and now supplies most of the key components for the SpaceShipOne rocket motor.
"I am extremely proud of our SpaceDev rocket propulsion team for successfully developing this elegant system, and we are delighted to be part of helping make safe and affordable access to space a reality," said Jim Benson. "With SpaceDev's rocket motor technology, and with the historic SpaceShipOne, commercial, manned, suborbital space flight is now truly within reach, and no longer just a dream." Read More

MOJAVE GEARS UP FOR HISTORIC SPACE FLIGHT

2004-06-14T19:35:00.000Z

The Mojave Airport in California is preparing for the thousands of spectators that are expected to witness the world's first private manned space flight there on June 21. X PRIZE team Scaled Composites plans to launch one pilot aboard SpaceShipOne into space as a precursor for future X PRIZE competitive flights. "Landing SpaceShipOne safely is the number one issue on our mind," said Director Bob Rice to Space.com. "We're dealing with parking locations right now. We can fit only so many cars. We've got plans for everything. And yes, there will be T-shirts." source: http://www.xprize.org

DIAMANDIS, LINDBERGH TO SPEAK AT NASA CONFERENCE ON PRIZES

2004-06-14T19:34:00.000Z

Two members of the X PRIZE Foundation will speak at the NASA Centennial Challenges workshop scheduled for June 15-16 in Washington, DC. Chairman Peter Diamandis and Vice President Erik Lindbergh have been invited to participate as part of a panel entitled, "Past, Present, and Future Prize Competitions." They will discuss both the ANSARI X PRIZE and the X PRIZE CUP. NASA's Centennial Challenges workshop is being presented as "an opportunity for potential participants to provide input to NASA about future competitions."

TEAM MICRO-SPACE SUCCESSFULLY TESTS PROPULSION MODULES

2004-06-14T19:31:00.000Z

Micro-Space, a competitor for the ANSARI X PRIZE, "completed successful test flights of three of our liquid fueled propulsion modules," according to a June 6 press release. "High sustained thrust was achieved in these flights. Sufficient thrust is now being generated to permit manned flight with clustering, although somewhat greater thrust is optimum for X PRIZE efforts," noted Team Leader Richard Speck

Micro-Space Press Release (June 6, 2004) - Micro-Space recently completed successful test flights of three of our liquid fueled propulsion modules. This brings to ten the number of test flights of this system. High sustained thrust was achieved in these flights. Sufficient thrust is now being generated to permit manned flight with clustering, although somewhat greater thrust is optimum for XPRIZE efforts. Our very active flight test program has now resolved the propulsion problems which are missed in static testing. Telemetry and tracking are operational, yet undergoing improvement. Our program, like Mercury and Apollo, relies on unmanned flights to perfect the spacecraft systems. Electronic data and high resolution imagery are invaluable to diagnose problems and engineer solutions. Micro-Space is bringing online a "Dynamic Imaging Theodolite" (DIT) to upgrade capture of high altitude imagery. The "DIT" is a Spectron Engineering "DASH" robotic imaging theodolite (used for aerospace display analysis) upgraded for target tracking. This unit can resolve a one foot object at twenty miles, and detect it at orbital altitude. More than ten degrees per second of motion is available to track an object, with position resolution to a few seconds of arc. A pair of systems can provide stereoscopic images and 3D analysis. The imaging module can capture over 1000 images per second for slow motion video playback, and provides photometrically calibrated picture elements for analysis. Our current flights underscored the problem of the "Powered Gravity Turn", which challenges all sustained thrust rockets. Unlike short burn, solid motor rockets - which sometimes exhibit straight flight paths - the sustained thrust causes a rocket to accelerate away from vertical, with an exponential divergence. To optimize air drag, and avoid crushing 20 gravity acceleration, the sustained thrust is necessary. This problem historically forced Robert Goddard and Wernher Von Braun to incorporate guidance hardware into their early flight systems. Now it is our flight test priority. Guidance systems, some of which we flew successfully ten years ago, will now be incorporated into our test systems. The "DIT" high resolution imaging system will be invaluable for system development. Combined with our high thrust motors, we will soon achieve extreme altitude flights.

Pablo De León & Associates: Team Information Update

2004-06-14T17:26:00.000Z

Pablo De León & Associates released a PDF file.
- In january 2002 we flew the first latin american payload in the U.S. Space Shuttle Endeavour carrying 7 experiments to the International Space Station (I.S.S.).
- X Prize vehicle details:
LAUNCH METHOD: Vertical launch
PROPULSION: Hybrid (Liquid/solid) rockets
LANDING METHOD: Parachute landing system
- Several High Altitude Balloons test were performed during 2001/2002 from the Patagonia
GPS Positioning, and telemetry was transmitted to Earth every second.
Capsule flights were recorded in real time video and the images transmitted to Earth.
- Research in life support systems
Partial Pressure space suit, Thermal Protection Coverall
Space suit tested in high alttitude and thermal chamber.
- Research in life support systems.
- Space suit tested in high alttitude glider flights.
- A half scale rocket launch test took place in may 2003 with a total loss of the vehicle.
- Now, static tests of an improved propulsion system are taking place, and a new test flight with capsule recovery will be performed in september 2004
Read More + Pictures: http://www.spacecongress.org/2004/Panel-5/5DeLeon.pdf (PDF Adobe Acrobat File)

How many winners?

2004-06-14T14:20:00.000Z

With so many entrants into the Ansari X Prize competition, one might think that there are going to be 20 suborbital tourism concerns within a few years. How many will there be in twenty years? The answer is likely to be three. Ever heard of the Big Three automakers? For years there were three major TV networks. Three media buyers. Three major telephone long distance carriers.

http://www.thespacereview.com/article/160/1

Post-Gazette: First private spaceship ready to fly next week

2004-06-14T11:12:00.000Z

Commercial aviation began within a decade of the Wright Brothers' 1903 flight at Kitty Hawk. Yet 43 years after Yuri Gagarin's first manned spaceflight, you still can't book a seat on a regularly scheduled spaceship.
Weather and technology permitting, the era of commercial manned spaceflight finally may open a week from today, when the first privately developed rocket plane is scheduled to launch into history.
Funded by Paul G. Allen, billionaire co-founder of Microsoft Corp., and designed by aviation genius Burt Rutan, "SpaceShipOne" will attempt the first non-government manned flight to exit Earth's atmosphere.
After riding to an altitude of 50,000 feet on a carrier aircraft named the White Knight, SpaceShipOne and its pilot will drop loose. An 80-second blast from a rocket motor will lift the small ship to an altitude of 62 miles, well beyond the 50-mile mark that the U.S. Air Force terms "worthy of astronaut wings."
The pilot will become the world's first astronaut coined in a privately funded program. He then will guide SpaceShipOne to a landing in California's Mojave Desert, where organizers expect TV cameras and thousands of spectators. Read More

PressTelegram: Companies want to put you into orbit

2004-06-14T11:09:00.000Z

Aviation visionary Burt Rutan has a lot of weightlessness riding on his shoulders.
In seven days, Rutan's latest creation, SpaceShipOne, is scheduled to rocket into suborbital space, 62 miles above the Mojave Desert.
It would be the first nongovernment flight to leave the earth's atmosphere if successful.
But for Rutan and the billionaire backer of SpaceShipOne, Paul Allen, co-founder of MicroSoft, a successful mission could be an historic kicking open of the door to commercial space flight for private citizens, an industry that Rutan said could generate billions in revenue.
Imagine weightlessness for three to four minutes. Seeing the brilliant blue oceans of Earth, wispy white clouds floating above, and the planet's curved horizon. Black space dotted with stars, clearer than ever imagined on the ground.
More than 150 people already can't wait and have plopped down $6,000 deposits with one travel agency. Eventually they would likely pay up to $100,000 for the ride of their life and aerospace observers say the market could be endless.
"The thing with space flight is it's not in the public conscience,' Rutan said last week from the SpaceShipOne flight complex at the Mojave Civilian Aerospace Test Center, a commercial airport in the Mojave desert.
"Within the next 12 to 15 years you will be able to buy a ticket and be an astronaut. And at a price you can afford with your salary,' Rutan said. Read More

SignOnSanDiego: Sky-high ambition

2004-06-14T11:04:00.000Z

Engineer sees opportunity for civilian spaceflight
The stars were out and a chill wind blew as the ecstatic crowd surged across police lines in a field near Paris 77 years ago.
Shouting "Cette fois, ca va!" – "This time, it's done!" – they hoisted Charles Lindbergh to their shoulders as he emerged from his single-engine airplane after a nonstop, 33½-hour flight from New York. He had proved it was possible.
Lindbergh later wrote he "was astonished at the effect his successful landing in France had on the nations of the world. To me, it was like a match lighting a bonfire."
Now, in the high desert 90 miles northeast of Los Angeles, a legendary aircraft designer is on the verge of attaining a similarly ambitious goal.
At the Mojave Airport on June 21, Burt Rutan plans to strike his own match in the hope that it will light a bonfire for the 21st century. Rutan's goal is to become an antidote to NASA, to show that spaceflights can be done at relatively low costs with no government support.
Rutan's company, Scaled Composites, plans to launch a rocket plane called SpaceShipOne beyond the Earth's atmosphere and become the first privately financed team to create a manned space program.
The space shot should be visible for hundreds of miles. The vertical plume from an earlier test flight was spotted in Burbank. Read More

New York Times: Private Space Travel? Dreamers Hope a Catalyst Will Rise From the Mojave Desert

2004-06-14T10:57:00.000Z

One week from today, from a runway in a barren reach of the Mojave Desert 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles, Burt Rutan will try sending a pilot higher than anyone has ever flown in a private plane.
A longtime designer of innovative aircraft, he plans to shoot his creation, a rocket called SpaceShipOne, 62 miles above the earth. If the flight is successful, Mr. Rutan and his sponsor, Paul G. Allen, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, say it will usher in an age of privately financed space travel and even spacefaring laboratories and manufacturing plants, at down-to-earth prices.
The flight would also be a milestone on the way to winning the Ansari X Prize, a competition begun by a group of entrepreneurs and space enthusiasts in 1996 in hopes of spurring a private space race. Modeled on the $25,000 Orteig Prize, which inspired Charles Lindbergh's 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic, the $10 million X prize has spurred the efforts of more than two dozen teams worldwide, some of them financed by patrons like Mr. Allen and John Carmack, a founder of Id Software.
To win the X Prize, SpaceShipOne will have to travel 62 miles up twice in two weeks with three people aboard; Mr. Rutan said those flights would be tried at a later date. In May, SpaceShipOne reached an altitude of 40 miles.
Mr. Rutan is not shy about the adventure. He has invited the public to join him in the desert to watch. History, he says, is in the making.
"We encourage people to come out and bring their children, so their children can tell their children that they were there," he said.
Mr. Allen, 51, says he has spent more than $20 million to fulfill fantasies that were fueled by science fiction and the real-life space program. "As a child, I read everything I could about space travel," he said. In 1981, he attended the first shuttle launching, that of the Columbia. Read More

Armadillo Aerospace News: Streamlined hovers and landings

2004-06-14T10:45:00.000Z

Armadillo Aerospace: We completed the streamlined subscale vehicle and conducted several hover tests this week. Total vehicle weight is 310 pounds dry.
http://media.armadilloaerospace.com/2004_06_13/bulkheadTop.jpg
http://media.armadilloaerospace.com/2004_06_13/vehicleBase.jpg
http://media.armadilloaerospace.com/2004_06_13/uncovered.jpg

We did some drop tests from the hoist to evaluate the shock absorber landing gear, and they did a very good job, even when the vehicle was swung before release. Without any bounce, the vehicle just settles down, even at slight angles.
It has been raining a lot, and it wouldn’t let up for us at all on Tuesday, but we really wanted to test things out, so we put a big plastic bag over the rocket nose to give some extra cover to the electronics, and went ahead and gave it a try. The flight control software had been modified to predict acceleration some time in the future to compensate for the time lag between moving the valve and engine chamber pressure changing, which should smooth out the up/down oscillations in hover and landing modes.
We stood the vehicle up on the big foam blocks so we didn’t need to trust it to come down straight, but this put them too close to the engine on the narrow vehicle, and we burned off a lot of the aluminum covering we added. We are probably going to get some stainless foil next time.
http://media.armadilloaerospace.com/2004_06_13/preFlight.jpg
http://media.armadilloaerospace.com/2004_06_13/burnedBlock.jpg

This engine didn’t warm up as nicely as the engine on the lander, which we attribute to the lack of a compressed hot pack. After it finally got warm, the hover looked very good, but it ran out of propellant before it landed, which made us very happy we had done a block launch instead of a ground launch. We did another run with extra propellant, and everything went normally. The acceleration prediction seemed to be working very well.
At hover, the chamber pressure was only 100 psi, so on a boosted hop with even a 0.5G stabilize level, we are looking at a 50 psi chamber pressure, which is certainly going to separate inside the nozzle. We seem to have pretty good luck with even separations, but we have certainly seen some single-wall attachment separations, which I have been very concerned about disrupting flights. We decided to cut off some of the nozzle, taking it down to only about a 1.8x expansion ratio. This will be underexpanded on boost, and still rather overexpanded during coast, but it will hopefully be a reasonable compromise. Read More

Branson reaches for the stars

2004-06-11T16:40:00.000Z

Sir Richard Branson aims to bring space travel within the reach of ordinary people by pioneering space flights at affordable prices.
The thrill-seeking entrepreneur told Guardian Unlimited that Virgin was investing money in "trying to make sure that, in the not too distant future, people from around the world will be able to go into space". He said he hoped to be a passenger on one of the first tourist space flights into space.
Sir Richard refused to be drawn on details of the project, but said the public should expect an announcement revealing Virgin's latest enterprise at some time in the next two or three weeks.
"All will be revealed over the next two or three weeks - but, in a general sense, space is the ultimate frontier, and something we at Virgin have dearly wanted to do is to bring space tourism one day to the masses," he said.
Space expert Greg Klerkx, author of the book Lost in Space: The Fall of Nasa and the Dream of a New Space Age, said that, for some time, there had been rumours Sir Richard was very interested in space flight.
"He has had some conversations with [space tourism firm] Space Adventures about being a space tourist himself," Mr Klerkx told Guardian Unlimited.
Virgin has long been involved in promoting the adventurous exploits of its chairman and his fellow adventurer Steve Fossett, including the successful Global Challenger mission to fly a balloon non-stop around the world.
Sir Richard's forthcoming announcement could be related to plans for a June 21 test flight of SpaceShipOne, a rocket-propelled reusable space vehicle created by aerospace designer Burt Rutan, of California firm Scaled Composites. Read More