SpaceShipOne Breaks the Sound Barrier

Scaled Composite Press Release ^ | December 17th, 2003

[Charles Martel]

The only thing I regret about the Scaled Composites effort is that they're not using a B-29 as the drop ship. (I still get chills watching the B-29 takeoff at the beginning of The Right Stuff; the music and imagery bring to mind something akin to being in a cathedral.)

Now there's a movie that should be adapted to the IMAX screens. I concur, the B-29 is one magnificent bit of engineering. I doubt the CAF would want to carve up FiFi's underbelly for drop-ship duty, though. I watched that B-29 fly out of the Baton Rouge airport one Fall afternoon - the movie does it justice, but just barely.

"Hey, Ridley... you got any Beeman's?"

Goin' Upstairs Like a Bat Outta Hell

[hattend]

I don't think the BD-10 ever made it to mach 1. It killed most of the company test pilots and the owner of the company that bought the rights from Bede with flutter problems.

[Cogadh na Sith]

I got to visit Scaled for work last week. I got to walk around and touch Spacship 1 and White Knight--play with the flight sim too. They are all great guys out there: Total Professionals.

[Captain Beyond]

bump

[sonofatpatcher2]

HOT DAMN!!!!

[Cogadh na Sith]

They have all kinds of contracts with the Gov--they fly a lot of pods for NASA at high altitude as well as the Air Force. However, because they are a sole-source type provider, the gov doesn't bugger them much...

[RightWhale]

Very cool! It would be fun and educational to have a SpaceShipOne flight sim on one's own pc.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

ping

[BenLurkin]

"Aerospace Valley" BUMP!

[Brett66]

Ping. Excellent achievment! Time to go into space.

[RightWhale]

I suppose after Rutan collects his X-prize, it would be time to begin discussing $/lb to orbit some payloads.

[bonesmccoy]

how did you get shares in the enterprise? Is it publicly traded?

[Brett66]

Did this in Lightwave.

[RightWhale]

The motor, which won a vendor shootout. Made by a company bought by a company I bought shares in as soon as shares were offered.

[bonesmccoy]

Rutan is making me jealous.

I'd give anything to be sitting at the tarmac watching as they do the next run.

[RightWhale]

From SPDV PR:

"It was an incredible sight!" said SpaceDev founding chairman and chief executive Jim Benson. "We were watching as the White Knight dropped SpaceShipOne at about ten miles up, and we waited breathlessly as the White Knight pealed off and SpaceShipOne fell for a few seconds. Then with a really visible flash of light and stream of smoke, our rocket motor lit, and SpaceShipOne seemed to blast straight up for about 15 seconds that seemed like minutes. Then the flame and smoke stopped, but you could still see little SpaceShipOne coasting up toward space at an incredible speed. What a sight! It was even more exciting than watching Apollo 17 lift off at night way back in 1972. After working on this project for four years, space is now exciting again!"

After being released by the White Knight, a carrier aircraft, SpaceShipOne Test Pilot Brian Binnie flew the ship to a stable, 0.55 mach gliding flight condition, started a pull-up, and fired its hybrid rocket motor. Nine seconds later, SpaceShipOne broke the sound barrier and continued its steep powered ascent. The climb was very aggressive, accelerating forward at more than 3-g while pulling upward at more than 2.5-g. At motor shutdown, 15 seconds after ignition, SpaceShipOne was climbing at a 60-degree angle and flying near 1.2 Mach (930 mph). Brian then continued the maneuver to a vertical climb, achieving zero speed at an altitude of 68,000 feet.

"This successful and historic flight is important because we are showing that the private sector can perform human space flight faster, safer and cheaper. In addition, this is historic because it is the first human flight ever powered by hybrid rocket technology, and SpaceDev is proud to be leading the way, by providing critical hybrid motor components and technology to Scaled. It is creating this kind of challenge and stimulating a renewed sense of excitement about space that caused me to start SpaceDev," said Benson. "The entire SpaceDev engineering team is pleased to help pioneer this New Space Age."

[bonesmccoy]

Thanks for the updated info!

FR is the only source of info on this project!

[Frank_Discussion]

Very Nice!

[HamiltonJay]

Repeating something that has already been done cheaper and faster does not prove a thing... that is how it is TYPICALLY! Once the first person has done it and solved all the hard parts, it is much easier for the next person to come along and do it... why? Because the hard problems were solved by the people who came before.. .this is true of all systems!

Did you know that in the 1700's a man who could add columns of numbers without seperating them out and adding them 2 at a time then adding the next one to the sum and then the next was considered a genius? Today kids are doing in in grades 1 and 2!

It took computer scientists decades to create the bubble sort, yet it is now standard fair for first year students! Anyone repeating an accomplished task can do it cheaper and faster... that's how things are.. replicating an accomplishment is always less costly and achieved faster than the the original accomplishment took.

[Frank_Discussion]

I can't freply just yet, but I will tommorrow, that is if the others on the thread don't explain things to you. No, I'm not trying to be patronizing, but I certainly think you misunderstand the gravity and nature of this achievement.

Hint: It isn't technological.

Have a great evening!