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SpaceShipOne launches Monday


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I was rooting against Rutan and his SpaceShipOne. I mean, I fully support the goals of the competition but SpaceShipOne is easily the most un-sexy and boring of the serious entries.

 

Anyone know how John Carmack's effort is working out? Will the others stop once Rutan takes the Xprize?

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Originally posted by dogbert@Jun 20 2004, 09:50 PM

Anyone know how John Carmack's effort is working out?

 

Way behind, like pretty much all the competitors. Nobody else is close to manned flights, I believe.

I think Carmack's team is at the stage where they are trying to get an FAA license to blast into the suborbit. They just had a successful test of their design.

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Man, I gotta say the tv coverage of this was piss poor! This is being treated as a just another human-interest story by most channels. CNN seems to be the only news outfit rightly giving it the historic perspective it deserves.

 

This is awesome! Private spaceflight in my lifetime? Getting closer to reality.

 

Carlos.

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Guest Bryan

Success!

 

<Snipped from Space.com>

11:02 a.m. ET: Mike Melvill and his SpaceShipOne have made it into space. Everything looks good, mission official said, and the craft is now gliding back toward a landing at the Mojave Airport, where it took off earlier this morning. "I got goose bumps when I saw contrails," Greg Klerkx, author of Lost in Space: The Fall of NASA and the Dream of a New Space Age. "I never thought I'd see this moment, but here it is."

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Originally posted by Carlucci@Jun 21 2004, 10:10 AM

Man, I gotta say the tv coverage of this was piss poor! This is being treated as a just another human-interest story by most channels.

Agreed. This is history in the making and it's practically being ignored, even on the BBC's website.

 

I guess it's a matter of how bad you end up looking if that South Korean guy is executed and you put some stupid spaceship over him in the headlines.

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Just read on another site that the poor camera coverage has to do with the Discovery Channel having exclusive rights to the documentary. So that explains the poor camera angles. (but not the poor media coverage) Can't wait to see the documentary.

 

You know, they're planning to do two-week turn-arounds to launch again?! Apparently this is one of the X-Prize requirements.

 

Someone said that they could launch this puppy 5 times in a single day if they wanted to.

 

Carlos.

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Originally posted by Carlucci@Jun 21 2004, 11:23 AM

Someone said that they could launch this puppy 5 times in a single day if they wanted to.

That's good news. Supply and demand, you know? Hopefully that will bring the price down for space tourists. I'll tell you all about it when I get back. Hope there's enough room in the cockpit for the Sixty-two Mile High Club.

 

-j

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Originally posted by Carlucci@Jun 21 2004, 09:23 AM

Just read on another site that the poor camera coverage has to do with the Discovery Channel having exclusive rights to the documentary. So that explains the poor camera angles. (but not the poor media coverage) Can't wait to see the documentary.

Neither can I! I imagine it would be particularly spectacular if they air it on DiscoveryHD.

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  • 1 month later...

Okay, a second team set a date for launch. SpaceShipOne's first flight was non-qualifying for the Ansari X Prize, so it's still up in the air (NPI).

 

The second team was originally called the da Vinci Project, but they got $500K from Golden Palace, so now it's "the Golden Palace.com Space Program powered by the da Vinci Project." This ship is launched from a balloon.

 

Originally posted by from Space.com

Wild Fire?s current flight plan calls for its wide balloon to fly up to an altitude of 80,000 feet (24,384 meters) with the spacecraft dangling by a cable about 750 feet below the balloon?s crew quarters. From balloon top to rocket bottom, the entire assembly measures about 1,000 feet. Once the balloon-rocket duo reaches the proper altitude, Wild Fire will ignite its engine ? a hybrid rocket fueled by nitrous oxide and a ?proprietary blend? of solid propellant ? and launch spaceward at a target height of 71.5 miles (115 kilometers).

 

More here.

 

-j

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