Posted on 10/04/2004 8:47:44 AM PDT by Mike Fieschko
Brian Binnie (top left in image), flew the second leg of the X Prize competition in Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne.This is the final successful attempt for the XPrize. The $10 million prize is given to the first privately financed team who can make two successful manned space flights in a craft able to carry three people.
The aeronautic rules also states that the pilot must come back in good health, i.e. "survive for 24 hours after landning".
Images of the Pilots, Brian top left, and today's space flight - bottom.
"We are heading to orbit sooner than you think," Burt Rutan, the creator said earlier. "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 said he expects the flight of SpaceShipOne to have an effect comparable to a set of public demonstrations that the Wright brothers carried out in Paris in 1908.
The reason, Rutan said, is because those demonstrations showed people "that's something I can do, because a couple of bicycle shop guys can do it". In the same way, he said, this low-cost flight into space will lead people to realise that "hey, this is something for us to do now, this is not just for governments ".
Vulcan, Inc and Scaled Composites the companies behind SpaceShipOne, are 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.
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has invested more than $20 million in Scaled Composites to create the manned program -- a fraction of what government-sponsored efforts have cost.
"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."
The craft embodies several innovations, including a unique hybrid rocket motor, a new method of re-entering the atmosphere that requires no active controls, and the first operational space vehicle made entirely of carbon composite rather than metal.
The Eagle has landed. SpaceShipOne has won the 10 million X Prize contest, and opened a new route to Space.
The pilot, Brian Binnie, grabbed the previous Mike Melvill's torch and flew the second leg of the X Prize competition. A graduate of the U.S. Navy's test pilot school, he was at the controls when SpaceShipOne broke the sound barrier for the first time on a December test flight, which was marred when the craft hit the runway of Mojave Airport hard upon landing and veered into the brush.
In all seriousness, I watched "Black Sky" last night, about Rutan and his crew. Hats off to all of them, extremely impressive work.
.
BUMP to the private market
Cool.
That's true. This is like Kitty Hawk, and once again it wasn't the gov't that did it.
I wonder if NASA can see the handwriting on the wall?
Just think of how many homeless people that money could have clothed and fed. Instead it was wasted on Big Boy toys. Shame on them.
I hope that was tongue in cheek. If it wasn't, it was a stupid remark.
"Out there...thataway."
Uh, you are joking, right? Like, MAJORLY joking?
That's nothing compared to how many could have been deported for the same cost.
It's his money.
Guess the Air and Space Museum Annex over near Dulles airport will have a new occupant.
BTTT
ONLY IN AMERICA
"Instead it was wasted on Big Boy toys. Shame on them."
Your Socialist roots are showing.
Why not spend some of your own money helping out those in third world countries where the average annual income is $1,200.00 per year. Even the homeless here in the U.S. are wealthy by comparison.
Everything is relative.
Actually this could help NASA, they can send their astronauts up to space for cheaper commercially..
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.