SpaceShipOne finishes first flight during my morning coffee

Space.com: Tense Moments During Trailblazing Private Space Flight
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 29 September 2004 11:28 am ET
Updated at 11:55 a.m. ET

MOJAVE, CALIFORNIA – In a mission that could herald a new era of space tourism, a privately built, three-person rocket ship flew to space and back today. The event was the first of two flights scheduled to capture the $10 million Ansari X Prize.

The mission had tense moments as the craft appeared to make an unscripted roll near the top of its flight.

The X Prize money goes to the first privately built vehicle that can haul a pilot and two passengers to the edge of space, then repeat the feat within two weeks, in this case by Oct. 13. SpaceShipOne’s design team, Scaled Composites, based here at the Mojave Spaceport, said before the flight that they were ready to turn the vehicle around for reflight, perhaps making the second rocket run Oct. 4.

Trouble at the top?

Under clear desert skies here, SpaceShipOne was under the controls of a single pilot, but it was weighted as if three people were aboard.

Slung underneath the White Knight carrier aircraft, SpaceShipOne and its pilot, Mike Melvill, headed down the runway just after daybreak and lifted off to the cheers of thousands of gathered well-wishers. The joined vehicles made a slow spiraling ascent high above the desert landscape. The White Knight then released SpaceShipOne. After dropping and gliding a few seconds, Melvill ignited the vehicle’s hybrid rocket motor.

The target was 62.5 miles (100 kilometers) altitude – a sky-high goal required by the X Prize Foundation of St. Louis, Missouri in order to vie for the cash prize. The altitude is generally considered to be the threshold of space.

The unofficial altitude reached was 330,000 feet. That's 62.5 miles (100.5 kilometers).

SpaceShipOne appeared to go into an unexpected roll and shut down its main engine sooner than expected, following the high-altitude drop. Commentators in a live webcast were concerned.

"It appeared there were some wrinkles" near the apex of the flight, said webcast commentator Jim Scott. He and a colleague repeatedly expressed concern for the welfare of Melvill.

It is not yet clear what the problem was, however. Melvill did indeed turn the spaceship into an airplane, as planned, and then glided down.

SpaceShipOne returned later in the morning and landed on the same runway.

Space Tourism to come?

Curious onlookers and space tourism promoters were on hand for the historic flight.

The White Knight carrier plane was emblazoned with the logo of Virgin Galactic, which earlier this week announced it would contract for a variant of SpaceShipOne to carry paying tourists into space.

Robert Bigelow, billionaire hotel magnate and space tourism promoter, said this about SpaceShipOne this morning: "I'm impressed with the sheer speed of the vehicle." It goes over Mach 3 (Mach 1 is the speed of sound) and is privately built. "That's an accomplishment in itself besides all the other things it'll do today."

Bigelow this week announced a new prize of $50 million for the first private group that can build an orbiting, passenger-carrying spacecraft.

Wayne Stacy, 36, a coach and sports science professor from Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, just came to the Mojave to watch a bit of history.

"I missed class for this, but the students did not seem to mind," Stacy said. He saw first SpaceShipOne spaceflight on television in June. "It was just amazing. I just had to be here to see what is one of the most significant events of our time." Stacy thinks the space tourism industry "is already going. But we need events like this to create awareness outside the space community."

Verification required

Whether or not the vehicle "made the grade" so to speak, will be verified by independent methods, said X Prize Foundation head, Peter Diamandis, in a pre-flight interview with SPACE.com.

At least three independent methods, two radar tracking systems, and an onboard "gold box" will be utilized to verify flight conditions of SpaceShipOne as it makes its suborbital trek, Diamandis said.

More than a dozen teams around the globe are building, testing, and flying hardware to compete for the Ansari X Prize, an offer that expires at year’s end. The X Prize Foundation hopes to jump-start the space tourism industry through competition among entrepreneurs and rocket experts.

SPACE.com's Anthony Duignan-Cabrera and Robert Roy Britt contributed to this report.