The New Space Race

[MosJan]

SpaceShipOne set for prize-winning try

Designer confident, but notes 'anything can happen'

 

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SpaceShipOne sits underneath its White Knight carrier plane in Mojave, Calif. in this file photo.

By Alan Boyle

Science editor

MSNBC

 

MOJAVE, Calif. - The SpaceShipOne rocket plane is filled up with mementos, fueled up and ready for the first of a pair of space missions that could reap a $10 million prize. Wednesday's flight should go more smoothly than the craft's first journey to the edge of space in June, its designer said.

 

The last time around, SpaceShipOne made it across the internationally accepted boundary of outer space by only about 400 feet (120 meters), due to unexpected wind shear and a control-system glitch. This time, the rocket engine's performance has been tweaked so that it should pass the 100-kilometer (62.5 miles) threshold with fuel left to burn, designer Burt Rutan of Mojave-based Scaled Composites told reporters Tuesday.

 

"We don't want to scare everybody, including me ... by flying that close, so we do plan to intentionally shut down the rocket motor when the onboard computer tells us that we're above 345,000 feet," Rutan said. That translates to 65.3 miles or 105 kilometers.

 

The spaceship's rubber-based fuel has been in place for the past month, and the nitrous oxide that is used as an oxidizer was loaded into its tanks Tuesday, Rutan said.

 

"We're all very confident that we can pull this off tomorrow and turn it around quickly," Rutan said. "Anything can happen, though. There's all kinds of surprises that can happen. We believe our system is extremely robust to the normal types of failures with rockets that cause really big problems. ... The fact that this has gone so well — I've got to pinch myself."

 

Mementos riding along

The flight plan calls for SpaceShipOne to be carried underneath its White Knight carrier airplane for takeoff from the Mojave Airport at 6:47 a.m. PT (9:47 a.m. ET). About an hour later, when the paired planes rise to an altitude of 47,000 feet (14.3 kilometers), the rocket plane would be released, then fire up its engine for a 90-second burn

 

At the peak of the ride, the pilot — whom Rutan declined to name Tuesday — should be able to see the curvature of the earth beneath the blackness of space, and feel about three and a half minutes of weightlessness. For its descent, SpaceShipOne would bend its wings into a shape designed to allow for a "carefree re-entry" through the upper atmosphere, then become a glider and land back at Mojave at about 8:30 a.m. PT.

 

Wednesday's flight — along with another tentatively scheduled for Monday — is designed to win the $10 million Ansari X Prize, an eight-year-long effort meant to encourage private spaceflight.

 

SpaceShipOne must successfully complete two piloted spaceflights within two weeks in order to win the prize. The rules require SpaceShipOne to carriy almost 400 extra pounds (180 kilograms), to represent the weight of two passengers. Rather than loading up the craft with lead weights, Scaled Composites' ground crew packed the seats behind the pilot with video equipment, a flight monitoring device known as the "Gold Box" and mementos from team members.

 

Among the items: photos, personal tools from toolboxes, tree seedlings, a teddy bear for a British charity, Rutan's 1961-vintage college slide rule, an heirloom watch and a copy of "The Spirit of St. Louis," Charles Lindbergh's book about his 1927 solo trans-Atlantic flight. That flight made Lindbergh the winner of the $25,000 Orteig Prize, which in turn provided the inspiration for the X Prize.

 

Don't expect these mementos to turn up on eBay: Rutan said employees had to sign forms promising that they wouldn't sell the items that were flown.

 

If the X Prize is won, the $10 million purse would go to Mojave Aerospace Ventures, the company created by Rutan and software billionaire Paul Allen. Allen has said he has invested more than $20 million in the venture.

 

Other payoffs

In addition to the X Prize, SpaceShipOne's success could yield other payoffs: Rutan said there were "at least five customers who want to fly payloads" aboard SpaceShipOne once the X Prize flights are finished. "We are assessing all of those, and we haven't even ourselves made the decision, so we're certainly not going to be making an announcement," he said.

 

Among the would-be customers is Iranian-born entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari, whose family made a multimillion-dollar contribution to solidify the financial arrangements for the $10 million purse. Ansari said she was ready to take a seat on SpaceShipOne or one of its successors.

 

"Suborbital is the first step," she said. "I didn't want to wait until a few years down the line for orbital flight. I want to experience whatever can be experienced now."

 

On Monday, Virgin founder Richard Branson announced that he would license SpaceShipOne technology for a new fleet of "Virgin Galactic" suborbital spaceships, in a deal worth as much as $21.5 million. David Moore, managing director of Mojave Aerospace Ventures, noted that the nonexclusive deal left his venture free to forge other licensing agreements as well.

 

"I've actually had four other parties approach us," Moore told reporters. "We're starting those negotiations, and we'll see where they go."

 

© 2004 MSNBC Interactive

[MosJan]

Private rocket ship breaks space barrier

History-making pilot copes with serious control problem

 

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SpaceShipOne test pilot Mike Melvill, America's newest astronaut, flashes a broad grin and thumbs-up signs after emerging from his rocket plane.

[MosJan]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5261571/

[MosJan]

3,000 new astronauts in 5 years

The new service will be called Virgin Galactic and expects to fly 3,000 new astronauts in its first five years. Fares will start at $208,000 for a suborbital flight, including three days’ training.

Branson said the business would “allow every country in the world to have their own astronauts rather than the privileged few.”

[MosJan]

ok all i need is to loos 80 paunds and find 200k to be one of the first in the space

 

now i need to email Virgin Galactic and see if smoking is fine - on teh moon and in the craft

[MosJan]

Zero-gravity

flights go

mainstream

U.S. company offers

public the chance

to experience weightlessness

By Alan Boyle

 

After years of effort, the first commercial tour service to offer zero-gravity airplane flights in the United States is finally open for business. For just under $3,000, regular folks can get a tamed-down taste of what astronauts feel on NASA's "Vomit Comet."

 

Passengers aboard the modified Boeing 727-200 jet will experience weightlessness for about 25 seconds at a time, courtesy of the plane's special parabolic flight path. The physics behind the experience is analogous to what happens during a roller-coaster ride or a fast elevator descent. But inside the jet's padded passenger cabin, fliers are able to tumble in the air or do a "Superman" fly-through, similar to the acrobatics performed on the international space station.

 

Such flights have long been available for researchers and astronauts from NASA and the French company Novespace, and the Russians took parabolic flight one step further by allowing tourists to buy rides on similarly outfitted IL-76 cargo jets.

 

But the venture involving Zero Gravity Corp. and Amerijet International, both based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is the first to win approval from the Federal Aviation Administration for public parabolic flights in the United States, agency spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen told MSNBC.com.

 

Bergen said the final required certification was granted in mid-August after Amerijet, a 30-year-old cargo transport airline, demonstrated that such flights would be operated safely. "There were extensive requirements in the area of aircraft maintenance as well as operations before we could issue the special authorization," she said.

 

11 years of preparation

Zero Gravity's launch caps an 11-year effort for Peter Diamandis, who is the company's co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer, as well as the chairman of the foundation behind the $10 million Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight. During a space conference in Phoenix in April, Diamandis said he hoped Zero Gravity would be "an overnight success after 11 years of hard work."

 

This week, Zero Gravity kicked off a nationwide round of press preview flights, starting at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. The first flight available for ticketing is scheduled for Oct. 9 out of Fort Lauderdale, and Zero Gravity's chief marketing officer, Noah McMahon, told MSNBC.com that one full flight in December already has been sold out.

 

A typical parabolic flight lasts about 90 minutes, with 15 up-and-down parabolas at an altitude of 24,000 to 34,000 feet. Two "Martian" arcs simulate one-third Earth gravity, three "lunar" arcs feel like one-sixth Earth gravity, and the final 10 provide the full zero-gravity experience

 

"We're not picking people who are the typical military or NASA-type astronaut, we're talking about the average person, and the average person doesn't experience weightlessness in normal life," David Bassett, president and chief executive officer of Amerijet International, told MSNBC.com. "It's the experience of a lifetime. It's something that at the end of the day they're going to be really thrilled that they did."

 

NASA's flight path can induce motion sickness in some people — after all, that's why they call it the "Vomit Comet." And during this summer's series of demonstration flights for the FAA, a couple of the passengers aboard the Amerijet plane reportedly looked a little green around the gills, though most were said to be delighted. The FAA's Bergen declined to characterize how the inspectors handled the flights, other than to say, "It was definitely a unique experience for all of them."

 

Zero Gravity's McMahon said the ride had been toned down to minimize that stomach-turning feeling. "The bottom line is that NASA flies its airplanes using a very different flight profile," he said. "Ours is designed for the maximum amount of fun and enjoyment."

 

Training sessions and optional nausea remedies (which passengers must procure themselves in advance) further reduce the risk of getting space-sick. "We have very well-trained, certified flight attendants as well as coaches," McMahon said.

 

The bottom lines

Zero Gravity's price tag for the daylong tour is $2,950, which includes preflight training and a postflight party.

 

In comparison, Virginia-based Space Adventures and Florida-based Incredible Adventures offer zero-gravity flights in Russia as part of a four-day tour package priced at $6,500 to $7,000. Another commercial venture, led by Zero Group, is planning to sell zero-gravity tours starting in February. The trip would involve bringing a Russian IL-76 jet to Sweden, but the pricing and logistics have not yet been fully worked out.

 

These packages offer a taste of exotic culture as well as a taste of weightlessness: In Russia, you tour the Star City cosmonaut complex, and in Sweden, you would stay at the Kiruna Ice Hotel. Zero Gravity's offering, in contrast, offers a taste of the familiar. Individual ticket holders would board the plane at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Alternatively, you can buy out the entire 27-passenger flight, pay a transit fee and have the plane flown to the appropriate airport of your choosing.

 

That's the pattern for this month's press launch, sponsored by the Diet Rite brand of soft drinks: After Newark, the "G-Force One" jet is due to visit Los Angeles, Reno, Dallas, Atlanta and Detroit before returning to Fort Lauderdale.

 

Zero Gravity aims to keep capital expenses down by using Amerijet's cargo planes only when needed — a scheme that Diamandis and his partners actually patented five years ago. The arrangement calls for a cargo jet to be converted to zero-gravity service in a matter of hours, then converted back after the flight.

 

Gee-Whiz Science

The ‘why' of weightlessness

 

 

 

 

Amerijet's Bassett admitted that the plan sounded like "a crazy idea" when Diamandis laid it out for him more than a year ago.

 

"When I first heard about it, I thought it was pretty novel and wasn't certain how it would be received by the FAA," he said. But now Bassett is confident that the business model will fly, thanks to the FAA's clearance and Zero Gravity's years of preparation.

 

"The Zero Gravity folks have been involved with NASA and have had NASA people around them for many years," Bassett said. "The majority of flight attendants have at one time or another been associated with NASA. There's a heck of a lot of experience that has been pulled together to make this operation what it is, and we're confident that it's safe and ought to be fun."

 

© 2004 MSNBC Interactive

[MosJan]

i can dig 3k and >> Virginia-based Space Adventures and Florida-based Incredible Adventures offer zero-gravity flights in Russia Russia

[MosJan]

The SpaceShipOne spacecraft test pilot Brian Binnie © gestures as he speaks to reporters with SpaceShipOne creator Burt Rutan (L) and Sir Richard Branson ® looks on as he discusses his successful landing October 4, 2004 at the Mojave Airport Civilian Test Center in Mojave, California after making a suborbital flight into space on the second required flight into space in an attempt to win the $10 million Ansari X Prize. The prize is being offered to whomever makes two flights 62 miles high, an altitude generally accepted as being in space, in two weeks or less. SpaceShipOne made the first successful flight in the attempt to win the Ansari X Prize on September 29, 2004. REUTERS/Fred Prouser

[MosJan]

Astronaut Brian Binnie rides on SpaceShipOne after his suborbital flight to win the Ansari X Prize in Mojave, Calif. on Monday, Oct. 4, 2004. The $10 million dollar prize goes to the first team to launch the weight equivalent of three people into suborbital space twice within a two week period. (AP Photo/Laura Rauch)

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[Azat]

This space thing never intrigued me, but this morning I woke up and turned on the TV and was glued to if for an hour. What an exciting event. Almost as significant as the Wright brothers thing 100 years back.

 

Oh, and Yes I was late to work...

[Maral]

My daughters school took the kids to Mojave to watch it all this morning!

They had such a great time.They had to leave here at 5 am though ,poor things.

What an exciting thing to watch!

I sat home in my jammies had coffee and watched,that's even better,cheh?

[Azat]

That is great maral. I now wish I had done something like that. Maybe in my old age I could have my grandkid on my lap and would have talking about the day that I had seen the first private maned shuttle launch.

 

Oh wait I don't want any grand kids. OK replace grand kid with 18 year old girlfriend.

[MosJan]

"Maybe in my old age I could "

haw old is old Azat ???

[Maral]

That is great maral.  I now wish I had done something like that.  Maybe in my old age I could have my grandkid on my lap and would have talking about the day that I had seen the first private maned shuttle launch.

 

Oh wait I don't want any grand kids.  OK replace grand kid with 18 year old girlfriend.

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18????YOU WISH!

[Maral]

"Maybe in my old age I could "

haw old is  old Azat ???

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He told me in private that he thinks 37 is super duper old...and since I am 25 I agreed!

[Azat]

let an old fart dream once in a while Maral jan.

 

Movses, jan old=one more year

[MosJan]

haaa - du der huys unes te che old 65 asum en sorrryyyyynchi ognum

[Azat]

Movses jan every morning I take my sorryyyyy with cereal.

[MosJan]

Azat jan qo vijak@T shat lurja