And so I have returned from the black-hole dev-null of server limbo and have emerged on the other side alive and refreshed. Which is nice.
But the big news of the day (if you're me) is Bert Rutan and his pilot Mike Melvill successfully testing their X-Prize entry SpaceShipOne. After detaching from White Knight, a first stage carrier plane, the smaller SpaceShipOne (a little bigger than an Oldsmobile) blasted off up to 62 miles from Earth, which put it right at the border where "space" is considered to begin.
Certainly a flight to the edge of Earth's atmosphere has been done hundreds of times by now, right? So why is this news? It is new and news, because as a entry for the X-prize, SpaceShipOne is the first privately-funded spacecraft to accomplish such a task.
I first mentioned the X-prize in this space as an aside in this article, but I'd like to spend a little more time on it now. It was created in 1995 by Dr. Peter Diamandis, an aeospace researcher, in the hopes of inspiring the same rush of entrepreneurial fervor that helped launch the commercial aviation industry with the prizes sponsored in the 30s and 40s (and won by Lindbergh). Since that time it has grown in size and public interest, to a total of 27 teams competing for the now $10 Million prize. Much of the speculation and smart money so far has been on Bert Rutan's team "Scaled Composites" to win the prize. The design is really fascinating in the way it uses really new concepts in aviation to accomplish the task.
How do you win the $10M? You have to pilot a spacecraft with three passengers (pilot included) up to a height of 62 miles and return safely. Then, to prove it is viable as a reuseable solution, you have to do it again two weeks later. The test flight today was the first step toward that goal, with only the pilot aboard. Scaled hasn't confirmed when they will gear up for the actual run at the prize, but expect it to be coming up in the next few months.
Notes:
CNN Article on the Flight
NPR All Things Considered feature
Scaled Composite Team Page on X-Prize site
The list of X-Prize teams in competition
Posted by ktismael at June 21, 2004 9:22 PM