It looks like SpaceShipOne may have passed its first qualifying flight to win the Ansari X Prize . They had a demonstration flight back in June that showed that the whole system worked. Today was the first official flight for qualification. It was pretty scary to watch this time, though. They had a live video feed from the back of the craft, so you can see the engine exhaust, wings, earth and space. Well, during the powered ascent, the spacecraft started to roll and just kept spinning-up. The pilot (Michael Melvill, again) was instructed to shut down the engine, but he intentionally kept it burning long enough to get the minimum altitude (320,000 feet). It still had 11 seconds left to burn. Unofficially, even without the 11 seconds, radar on the ground measured the height at 358,000 feet. (Update: 337, 569 feet (64 miles)) If SpaceShipOne's altitude is confirmed, it will also have beaten the X-15's top altitude of 354,200 feet (67 miles) set on August 22, 1963. Wonder how far it can go?
Now, to actually win the Ansari X Prize, the team has to fly a second flight with 14 days of the time of touchdown of the first successful flight. The team has scheduled that next flight for Sunday Monday, October 4.
Richard Branson also announced that he is forming Virgin Galactic, using the Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites technologies (the SpaceShipOne technologies), to create the first commercial space tourist flights by the end of the decade.
2008- White Sox 8 - Tigers 2
2007- White Sox 3 - Tigers 2
2006- Terror in a small town
2005- As John Rooney would say... "Another White Sox Winner!"
- I have to break down and admit it
2003- Nuts
- Jerry's gone
2002- Antibiotics for Dad
- Dad is oozing