Private craft flies into space
"We are heading to orbit sooner than you think, we do not intend to stay in low-earth orbit for decades. The next 25 years will be a wild ride. ... One that history will note was done for the benefit of everyone."-- Rutan
By Michael Coren
CNN
Monday, June 21, 2004 Posted: 11:25 AM EDT (1525 GMT)
SourceMOJAVE, California (CNN) -- Rocket plane SpaceShipOne reached an altitude above 62.5 miles (100 km) during its brief flight Monday morning, making it the first privately built craft to fly in space, controllers said.
The space plane was carried aloft to about 50,000 feet by the jet White Knight.
From there SpaceShipOne launched into space.
Shortly after, the space vehicle landed safely at the same place from which it took off.
The two craft took off together over the Mojave Desert about 9:45 a.m. ET.
It is the first private manned spaceflight in history.
As the planes taxied onto the runway of the Mojave Airport, the pilot of SpaceShipOne, Michael Melvill, and the pilot of White Knight, Brian Binnie, waved to spectators from round portholes in the two vehicles.
Chase planes followed as they gained altitude.
Once they reach the scheduled height, Melvill plans to ignite SpaceShipOne's rocket engines over the desert and bring the ship into a vertical ascent at Mach 3, or three times the speed of sound. The craft will coast in a massive arc, about 100 kilometers, or 62 miles, above the Earth.
From the cockpit, the curvature of the Earth and a thin blue line that demarcates our atmosphere will be visible against the black sky.
Melvill, then the first astronaut to pilot a private spacecraft, will experience weightlessness for about three minutes.
He will then maneuver the plane for descent.
The remote desert Mojave airport, home to the world's only civilian test flight center and a licensed spaceport, was also host to an assortment of vehicles that converged on the site from around the country.
Buses, RVs, electric scooters, small ultralights and a menagerie of other vehicles were parked in the sandy soil across from the runway.
A sense of historic anticipation was shared by many of the spectators. Some said that after waiting decades, they were finally witnessing the first steps toward spaceflight for them.
Josh Collins, 25, said he had flown from Maryland to see the attempt.
"Some people thought I was crazy, other people are jealous," he said. "I can't wait to see the launch. It's going to be historic."
Melvill, 62, a veteran test pilot, becomes the first civilian flier to earn his astronaut's wings aboard a privately financed spacecraft.
The rocket plane designed by Burt Rutan and built by his firm Scaled Composites is taking its 15th test flight -- its farthest and fastest to date.
Scaled Composites is one of 24 companies from several countries competing for the $10 million Ansari X Prize, which will go to the first privately funded group to send three people on a suborbital flight 62.5 miles (100.6 kilometers) high and repeat the feat within two weeks using the same vehicle.
The nonprofit X Prize Foundation is sponsoring the contest to promote the development of a low-cost, efficient craft for space tourism in the same way prize competitions stimulated commercial aviation in the early 20th century.
The prize is fully funded through January 1, 2005, according to the foundation's Web site.
With only veteran test pilot Melvill on board, Monday's flight is testing SpaceShipOne's ability to reach the 62.5-mile altitude, which is the internationally agreed-upon boundary of space.
Depending on the success of the initial flight, it will compete for the X Prize later in the year.
"We're hoping this will be just a repetition of the last flight, just a little faster, a little higher," said Melvill, who on May 13 flew SpaceShipOne to 212,000 feet, or a little more than 40 miles, at more than twice the speed of sound. (Full story)
The significance of the launch was hailed during a news conference Sunday at the Mojave launch site by two of the project's most enthusiastic backers: Rutan and billionaire Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft Corp.
"Tomorrow we will meet to add one more page to the history books," Allen said. "[Private space flight] will undoubtedly lead to unprecedented new endeavors in the years to come."
Both men said they expected the technology to lead to a human space flight industry financed by the private sector.
Allen has invested more than $20 million in Scaled Composites to create the manned program -- a fraction of what government-sponsored efforts have cost.
Rutan predicted that the small investment would be just a start.
"Space flight is not only for governments to do," Rutan said. "Clearly, there's an enormous pent-up hunger to fly into space and not just dream about it."
He hesitated to give a precise prediction when a major tourism industry would develop. But he said that within 10 to 15 years affordable suborbital flights would become a reality, and it wouldn't stop there.
"We are heading to orbit sooner than you think," he said. "We do not intend to stay in low-earth orbit for decades. The next 25 years will be a wild ride. ... One that history will note was done for the benefit of everyone."