Posted on 10/07/2004 12:44:26 PM PDT by tricky_k_1972
Mojave CA (UPI) Oct 5, 2004 The world's newest spaceship is back at its spotless hangar at the Mojave Airport, serving as a backdrop for dozens of television news shows.
The day after its flawless third flight out of the atmosphere - a mission that captured a $10-million cash prize for its owners - it was quiet. Only a handful of the thousands of guests who came to witness the flight remained in town.
Still spanking new, SpaceShipOne has fulfilled its mission, forever retiring the notion that only governments can fly people beyond the atmosphere. Spaceship creator Burt Rutan plans to send his craft to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington, D.C., but not before it fulfills one last mission.
The offers to sell sub-orbital spaceflights to government organizations and private agencies and individuals were pouring in even before SpaceShipOne won the $10 million Ansari X Prize competition. Though Rutan and his partner - Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen - would like to make money from their investment, they have something bigger in mind: SpaceShipTwo, a commercial, passenger-carrying spaceliner.
My gut tells me that the additional flying we may do on this airplane before it goes to the Air & Space Museum should be focused on developing the very best space tourism vehicle, Rutan said at a news conference following Monday's prize-winning flight.
We may define reasons to fly SpaceShipOne in a research mode to gather more data, to get a few more pieces of information that will help us do a world-class job on developing a commercial spaceliner, he said. My gut tells me ... that's where I've got to focus all my talents.
SpaceShipTwo will be a five-person, sub-orbital vessel owned by a new venture called Virgin Galactic, an offshoot of Virgin Atlantic Airways. The inaugural flight is scheduled for 2007. Rutan, as well as Richard Branson, Virgin's eclectic chairman, say they will be aboard.
I think anyone who had the chance to go would want to go, said Trevor Beattie, a British advertising personality, who already has booked a flight.
The passenger list also is expected to include the winner of a consumer promotion by softdrink manufacturer 7 UP, which plans to unveil details of its competition next year. The company made the announcement following the completing of SpaceShipOne's landing Monday.
Ticket prices for the early flights are expected to cost about $190,000, but Rutan and Branson said they expect prices to fall rapidly as other companies stake claims in the space tourism business. Branson said Rutan will build five vessels over the next three years.
Tourists will fly even higher than SpaceShipOne's record-breaking altitude of 69 miles and experience about seven minutes of weightlessness.
Every one of those passengers will have a much, much bigger window, a spectacular view, Branson said. It'll be the most beautiful thing ever created by man. It's an adventure where we hope to make money because I don't think space has a future unless people make money.
Branson added that profits from Virgin Galactic will be re-invested in space tourism development.
Virgin's agreement with Rutan and Allen is not exclusive, however. Mojave Aerospace Ventures, the partnership created to develop SpaceShipOne and related projects, is considering offers from four or five other companies as well, Rutan said.
Opening space for private travel was the primary goal behind the X Prize, which offered $10 million to the first team that builds and flies a three-passenger vehicle to sub-orbital altitude twice within two weeks.
Following a test flight in June, SpaceShipOne flew its two X Prize flights on Sept. 29 and Oct. 4 - the 47th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik, the world's first artificial satellite. The basketball-sized Sputnik, launched by the Soviet Union in 1957, was the opening shot in a Cold War battle that ended with the United States' landing Apollo astronauts on the moon in 1969.
Though 26 teams from around the world entered the competition, only one - the vessel designed by Rutan and financed by Allen - has flown. A Canadian team called the da Vinci Project had planned to fly this week, but postponed the attempt to continue building and testing its vehicle. Team leader Brian Feeney, who attended the SpaceShipOne launch, said he plans to fly before the end of the month.
Other companies that did not enter the X Prize are working on passenger spaceships as well.
XCOR Aerospace, also of Mojave, is designing the Xerus, a two-person craft that will cost an estimated $10 million to develop. The company is looking to offset development costs with government contracts for related technology development, said XCOR president Jeff Greason.
Many of the teams have models, test articles and detailed blueprints, but only SpaceShipOne has completed a successful flight. Rutan calls the project Tier One, the sub-orbital element of a multi-part program to revolutionize off-planet travel.
As a pledge to his commitment, Rutan plans to take off a small piece of SpaceShipOne before it is sent off to become a museum display. Part of the craft will be packed aboard a spacecraft bound for Pluto, the first deep-space mission planned without government backing.
Space Ping!
ping
Thursday, October 7, 2004 10:54 AM EDT
The Associated Press
Thrill seekers are plunking down six figures to ride rockets that haven't even been built yet, and a new airline called Virgin Galactic promises to be up and soaring in the next three years. Still, the budding space tourism industry faces a myriad of safety concerns - in the sky and on the ground - that must be resolved before any paying passenger takes off.
The rules that will govern the industry in the United States remain under discussion between federal regulators and rocket developers, and legislation is still before Congress.
The pace of negotiations and the ultimate shape of the regulations could determine whether the sky-high enthusiasm for space tourism - fueled by the historic suborbital flights of SpaceShipOne - grows or wanes, especially among investors.
Goodness, I suddenly feel like I'm in the first pages of a Heinlein nove :D
If somebody told me a year ago that you could do this, I'd have said they were nuts. Welcome to good old fashioned Yankee ingenuity.
By the way if you haven't seen it yet, they have a video up at the Xprize site that is very good. pay special attention to what Burt Rutan has to say. I think he hates NASA and all the other Government sponsored space programs more than a lot of the people on here do.
http://www.xprize.org/
Let's just keep it in the state of "No Controlling Legal Authority" for a while folks.
The perfect way to deliver SpaceShipOne to the Air and Space Museum.
It launches, and makes its landing at Dulles Airport.
How is THAT for a delivery? :o)
almost as a side note, but perhaps a very important one: I am glad to hear that some of the other competitors are still pushing for flight.
I think we have had enough experience with the ((all eggs)one basket) model.
DHS and the FAA would have a joint hissy-fit.
Leave it to the government to throw a wet blanket on this.
I do expect regulations, but this sounds over the top by description.
Space is once again getting the attention it should, and the poor old government space boys can't stand that they are all but being ignored.
Here's to an end run on something NASA should have done thirty years ago.
Exactly, and the way to do that is keep the competition going. The Xprise group has already planed for future prizes and there is yet another group forming for a 50 mil prize for an orbital flight with docking.
So, let DHS and FAA have a fit. What're they gonna do, de-certify a plane that will just be sitting in the Annex?
No, they'd probably engage it with a Patriot as it came through re-entry.
Spoilsports. They won't even allow for a spectacular delivery to the Air and Space Museum...
Suppose they filed a flight plan?
Now, we just have to get the big airlines and aerospace companies involved in designing and building spaceplanes. I know it sounds sacreligious, but once Boeing and Lockheed start turning out spaceplanes and Delta and American begin flying them, the prices will come down considerably and there will be a permanent commercial presence, at least in low orbit.
Kind of like the RS-71 Blackbird did?
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