Comments on: Photos: SpaceShipOne

Spacecraft backed by Paul Allen heads from Earth to space twice, winning $10 million Ansari X prize.

[Romasteve]

Don't know

I don't know if it will launch space flight for us right away, but my Grandmother flew in 1915 on a Wright flyer and then commercial flight started shortly there after.

I doubt that I will qualify age wise for a flight into space but someone I know will and know they will love it like I liked my first flight at 9 weeks in 1940.

Stephen Sanders
Rome, Italy

Don't know, but maybe

Stephen,

Internal clues indicate that you are about 64 years old. Michael Melvill, the pilot for the X1 flight, and the first civilian astronaut, is 63 years old.

Who knows. Maybe.

Richard

[timandlorene]

Just the First Step

A suborbital flight is the important first step in getting into space. But STAYING in orbit will be much harder. To that end the next challenge has been made. 50 million to the first team to get into orbit before the end of the decade. On Monday, billionaire Robert Bigelow, chief of Las Vegas-based Bigelow Aerospace, announced in Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine a new spaceflight competition, dubbed America's Space Prize. Bigelow said $50 million will go to the team that first builds a craft capable of carrying up to seven people to an orbital outpost by the end of the decade.
Wish it was me going!

[zaz.net]

Airport Readiness

Before you see commerical flights in to space, you will have to get airports ready for the task. Landing a craft from outter orbit takes a lot more pre-planning and ground level coordination. They landed Space Ship One in an isolated airstrip in the middle of the desert.

The X prize should have included a requirement to land the craft at any International airport at least once. If we want space travel to be common place, we need to do the trials in a common way, from commercial airports.

[grossj144]

Airport Readiness not an Issue

The Mojave Spaceport is being used because the aircraft in question is not FAA approved. Once all of the testing is complete (space-bound and official FAA) they can then be allowed to land on an international runway. The FAA needs to be certain that the aircraft is safe before it will allow it to have a place on any US-based airstrip. I am sure that the ICAO will also want to certify the aircraft, as well. So, I don't think that landing an aircraft from space will require all that much additional coordination. Once you are in the landing pattern, it will simply be the same as any other aircraft (no difference between a jet from Heathrow and a jet from space).

Cheers

Spaceflight for the "masses"

"We" should have been doing this decades ago, chaps! My father designed a space suit, when he was at Oxford back in the '20s, that looked just the same as those worn today! My grandmother, then in her 90s stayed up past her usual 10pm (Yorkshire!) bedtime to watch the first men land on the moon, and grumbled "What took them so long?"! We've had the technology for living in space for quite some time. What has been stopping us is us. More power to these wonderful gentlemen - I just hope that Sir Richard Branson can do this before I'm considered too old (I'm 66 now) to do what my father always wanted to do - go into space (Father, I won't be able to wear that suit you designed, but I'm trying to get as close to it as I can!). He was always disappointed that the English didn't get Einstein and make him a "Sir", and the American's got so many of the brilliant rocket scientist's after WWII, but then the U.S. wasn't pounded into the ground as were we, so, as he said, "They can afford to buy the best - hope they make good use of 'em." I reminded him of that during the moon-landing - he smiled, raised his glass, "They did!" he replied. I suspect he's doing the same again, but challenging us to "Get on with it, chaps!"

What keeps us...

The cost with minimal prospects of return. It took the Cold War to get the U.S. to go to the moon. While there were definitely "profitable" gains in technology, these were unknowns. It remains to be seen if these private space flights will turn a profit for the investors besides a rather substantial ego boost.

-t - http://torque.oncloud8.com

Space Ship One

Excellent Job, and it sure beats the turn around time of the shuttle!

Check the budget!

Hey, $20 million dollars from scratch to get into space?

To my mind, that's the most impressive stunt.

Burt Rutan is the master of the creating aircraft that fit a specific purpose, perfectly.

He and his brother the greatest aircraft (and lately spacecraft ) designers in all human history.

[alloro]

Budget?

Spend $20 million to win $10 million. Kinda makes it sound more like a government project than a private sector one. :)

From one who helped get to the moon.

Wow!

[Clive Appleby]

WOW

yes WOW indeed how can anyone PROVE the trip to the moon
actually happened though?

I seriously doubt it took place.

Personally I would love to believe in a space savvy world but
don't see the costs becouming trivial ever. Likewise the early
stage we are at today proves a moon shot and landing and then
return is clearly beyond humans. I gre up believing what my
Grandfather said and clearly cannot believe the moon has ever
been touched by a human. Sure maybe a tour out and back
maybe around the moon but no way was there ever a landing. I
am and Image effects professional who has made far more
convincing images of more outlandish things than a moon
landing. And i can reproduce any moon image from a blank
canvas in photoshop. Using @Alias models and Photoshop to
create the composite. Video and Film is equally manipulated. I
do it EVERY DAY.

www.x-plane.com - the sim they use

Get this if you want to try it yourself! I have this sim and it is very good.

www.x-plane.com - the sim they use

Get this if you want to try it yourself! I have this sim and it is very good.

[JackNauti]

SpaceShipOne DVD

If you want to see what it was like to be there when Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne flew all three times, check out the DVD "Mojave Magic: A Turtle's Eye View of SpaceShipOne" at www.DesertTurtle.com. These guys did a great job of creating a real "you are there" experience. And my kids love it, too!