Anybody watch the SpaceShipOne launch?

[red oct 2]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6126386/

watched the whole thing on CNN for a while it looked like he was in some trouble after spaceshipone separated from white knight. it started to spiral about 40 times during its ascent.

[gandalf the white 0]

Oooh! i missed that!  

(to be edited, wanted to have the first reply on this forum in a topic for ONCE!   )

EDIT:

10 million... congrats to that guy

just saw the video, weird stuff, that guy must've been panicing like mad . Ahwell, he survived, AND broke the boundary AND might just improve the aircraft's safety...

first aircrafts where a failure, lots of victims... atleast this is a better start of space aircrafts...

[Cpt. FrostBite 0]

I didn't know they were this far

Awesome and sad at the same time the x-price can now be claimed. I hope this development won't stop here and will continue to develop.

[denoir 0]

Amazing pictures. The camers on the ground actually followed the craft up into space

Anyway, that roll didn't look too good - but hey - it went far better than most of the early flights in the history of aviation. Let's see now if they can repeat it.

[red oct 2]

i hope they put up some pictures taken from the ship. speaking of which, i heard SpaceShipOne is actually pretty low tech. only thing that steers it are old fashioned wires and pullies. hardly anything electronic. wonder what its like riding in that thing. i think they said on CNN it was pushing 5 G's coming down

[red oct 2]

they didn't seem to concerned about the rolling. they said as long as the nose was still pointing up everything might have been okay. it probaly wasn't anything serrious like a machanical failure. i guess it may have had something to do w/ the speed of the ship all the G's and gravity from the earth causing it to roll. i duno, im no physics wizz. or maybe the pilot just moved the stick a little to much.

[bmgarcangel 0]

Well he did the first one.  He has one more I believe to ride to complete with a passenger within the next two weeks before they will be awarded the $10,000,000 Million Dollar prize.

Once they have that money they will be able to do so much stuff, can you imagine?  

Here at the competetors of Space Ship One:

Advent Launch Services

Houston, Texas

From a sea-based launch pad, the Advent will use oxygen and natural gas fuel to lift off into space. Afterwards the rocket is to glide to a landing at the launch site like a seaplane.

ARCA

Romania

ARCA is the Romanian acronym for the Aeronautics and Cosmonautics Romanian Association. Its 8-ton, 46-foot (14-meter) high rocket, Orinzont, will take off vertically and release a crew capsule. Each segment will parachute down to the sea.

Armadillo Aerospace

Mesquite, Texas

The Black Armadillo is a single-stage vehicle propelled by environmentally friendly hydrogen peroxide rocket engines. The vehicle will be vertically launched from the ground and parachute to a “groundbreaking” landing at 25 feet per second. Its crushable aluminum nose will neatly and systematically collapse into itself, and the capsule will fall on its side to end the mission.

Canadian Arrow

London, Ontario

The Canadian Arrow two-stage vehicle will take off vertically. A second-stage crew cabin will reach the highest elevation, then deploy three parachutes before splashing down.

The Da Vinci Project

Toronto, Ontario

The Da Vinci, a compact car-sized, oxygen and kerosene-powered rocket, will launch from the world's largest hot air balloon, fly to space, descend and deploy a parachute and land with GPS guidance.

~bmg

[bmgarcangel 0]

Pablo de Leon and Associates

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Gauchito (Little Cowboy) will be vertically launched from the ground using Hybrid Solid (Polyester Resin) and it will land in water using a parachute system.

HARC

Huntsville, Alabama

HARC is an acronym for High Altitude Research Corporation, which plans to launch the Liberator from a sea vessel using a Lox-Kerosene regenerative cooled engine. The Liberator will release a crew capsule that will return to earth by the traditional means of parachute with a water landing. HARC’s first priority is passenger safety.

Interorbital Systems

Mojave, California

Interorbital Systems’ Solaris X is a reusable single-stage rocket. It will be vertically launched from the Pacific Ocean using white fuming nitric acid and hydrocarbon X, and land horizontally in the ocean using parachutes.

RocketPlane

Solvang, California

RocketPlane’s XP will take off under conventional turbojet thrust from a spaceport runway using kerosene. XP is designed so it can readily take off and land at the same spot. The mission will end with a powered, horizontal landing at a landing strip.

Space Transport Corp.

Forks, Washington

Rubicon is a simple “rocket ship.” It will be launched vertically from a ground mobile structure using APCP solid rocket engines and descend with a parachuted ocean splashdown. Rubicon will then send out GPS information to a boat recovery team.

Starchaser Industries

Cheshire, England

The Starchaser V - Thunderbird will begin a vertical ascent powered by turbofan engines. A liquid oxygen/kerosene rocket engine will then become the major propulsive force, but the vehicle will coast to the highest point.

[red oct 2]

i've seen some of the competetors and i don't like them. except the one Solvang, California (the Rocket Plane). i like SpaceShipone because its mostly all contained. it doesn't have to jetison any boasters into the atmosphere and it makes a soft landing like a plane.

[bmgarcangel 0]

The The Da Vinci Project and the Advent Launch Services are all the same though, self contained launching systems.....I think they should get those ones runing too!

~Bmg

[DarkLight 0]

I bet someone pissed his pants!

[FSPilot 0]

Well he did the first one.  He has one more I believe to ride to complete with a passenger within the next two weeks before they will be awarded the $10,000,000 Million Dollar prize.

The 10 million million dollar prize? j/k

I'd love to see what this guy can do with all that money.

[CrashnBurn 0]

Well, even if spaceship one wins the 10 mil, it's like a booby prize. They already spent close to 30 mil in R & D...lol.

[FSPilot 0]

The prize is more of an excuse to expand the civilian aerospace market.

[Cpt. FrostBite 0]

Correct. It's meant to raise interest in the founding of a commercial spaceflight program. I really hope this will go further.

The da vinci project looks wierd. And the Armadillo should have an other name. The real Armadillo is a cool vehicle with a drill on it designed to drill holes in spacerocks and blow em up.

[Hit_Sqd_Maximus 0]

60 minutes has a show on right now about spaceship one for those who missed it.  

Edit: Apparently the designer got his check today or something from xprize.

[ralphwiggum 6]

for those who get 60 minutes a few days later than US, I HIGHLY recommend watching it.

here's transcript

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/11/05/60minutes/main654028.shtml

[Silent N Deadly 0]

Well he did the first one.  He has one more I believe to ride to complete with a passenger within the next two weeks before they will be awarded the $10,000,000 Million Dollar prize.

Once they have that money they will be able to do so much stuff, can you imagine?  

Here at the competetors of Space Ship One:

Advent Launch Services

Houston, Texas

From a sea-based launch pad, the Advent will use oxygen and natural gas fuel to lift off into space. Afterwards the rocket is to glide to a landing at the launch site like a seaplane.

[im]http://i.cnn.net/cnn/interactive/space/0405/gallery.xprize/gal.01.advent.jpg[/img]

ARCA

Romania

ARCA is the Romanian acronym for the Aeronautics and Cosmonautics Romanian Association. Its 8-ton, 46-foot (14-meter) high rocket, Orinzont, will take off vertically and release a crew capsule. Each segment will parachute down to the sea.

[im]http://i.cnn.net/cnn/interactive/space/0405/gallery.xprize/gal.02.arca.jpg[/img]

Armadillo Aerospace

Mesquite, Texas

The Black Armadillo is a single-stage vehicle propelled by environmentally friendly hydrogen peroxide rocket engines. The vehicle will be vertically launched from the ground and parachute to a “groundbreaking” landing at 25 feet per second. Its crushable aluminum nose will neatly and systematically collapse into itself, and the capsule will fall on its side to end the mission.

[im]http://i.cnn.net/cnn/interactive/space/0405/gallery.xprize/gal.03.armadillo.jpg[/img]

Canadian Arrow

London, Ontario

The Canadian Arrow two-stage vehicle will take off vertically. A second-stage crew cabin will reach the highest elevation, then deploy three parachutes before splashing down.

[ig]http://i.cnn.net/cnn/interactive/space/0405/gallery.xprize/gal.04.arrow.jpg[/img]

The Da Vinci Project

Toronto, Ontario

The Da Vinci, a compact car-sized, oxygen and kerosene-powered rocket, will launch from the world's largest hot air balloon, fly to space, descend and deploy a parachute and land with GPS guidance.

[ig]http://i.cnn.net/cnn/interactive/space/0405/gallery.xprize/gal.05.davinci.jpg[/img]

~bmg

Cool I was born in Romania. Live in the US tho.