Public spaceflight approaches

[I, Brian]

SpaceShipOne, the first private manned spacecraft, is undergoing final preparations before its historic flight to the edge of space on Monday. The craft, built by aviation pioneer Burt Rutan, will be launched into the sky by its carrier, White Knight, then rocket upwards to 100km (62 miles).

No private craft has ever been so high. In May, it reached 64km (40 miles) in a test flight, doubling its last best.

The attempt over California's Mojave Desert is due to launch at 1330 GMT.

Mr Rutan and his team from his company, Scaled Composites, hope the flight will take them closer to winning the Ansari X-prize of $10m (£5.7m) awarded to the first non-government, manned flight into space.

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3811881.stm

[alexa]

Originally Posted by I, Brian

SpaceShipOne, the first private manned spacecraft, is undergoing final preparations before its historic flight to the edge of space on Monday.
No private craft has ever been so high.

A beautiful dream, Brian, but very expensive !

Unfortunately, most of us are not multi-millionaires to afford this kind of trip. And even rich people should be excentric also do this. You know, kinda * Fly me to the moon ...*

I hope the project will be finally a succes. People from other countries than USA, Russia and China could try to do the same thing one day. When the space flight won't be only for special governemental projects, then, we, the ordinary people have a chance to make dreams come true.

[I, Brian]

HI Alexa, and welcome to CR.

As for the dream - oh, hopefully more accessible soon enough.

One thing I would absolutely love to do, regarding space travel, is to send all the world leaders into space, to look upon our wider world. See if maybe that can do something constructive to their worldview.

[alexa]

[QUOTE : One thing I would absolutely love to do, regarding space travel, is to send all the world leaders into space, to look upon our wider world. See if maybe that can do something constructive to their worldview. [/QUOTE]

Mhm. A politician in space ? I think his only thoughts, once there, would be how to do a better impression than the other party.

In my opinion, the dreemers of travel space have a better chance to do a constructive thing, because they have not a politician conviction.

[alexa]

Originally Posted by I, Brian

SpaceShipOne, the first private manned spacecraft, is undergoing final preparations before its historic flight to the edge of space on Monday.

Hi Brian,

Did you watch the launch ? Nice, isn't it ?

alexa

[I, Brian]

I missed it, but am still hoping to see some repeat footage on UK TV today.

[alexa]

Hi Brian,

Did you have any chance to see the flight of Space Ship One ? If not, here you have soething to check :

www.scaled.com/projects/tierone

The video doesn't have sound, but at least you can watch the Space Ship One on action.
I could't see more on our channels. I hope they will show more when Canada' s team will participate.

Have a nice week-end,

alexa

[I, Brian]

Nice link alexa - thanks for that - downloading now.

EDIT: Nice visuals.

Shame their no sound, but as there's non to hear in space, somehow that gives it an extra kick.

Thanks again - and I'll stay more alert for the X Prize flight attempt.

[alexa]

Brian,

I found another link, better than the 1st one :

www.space.com/missionlaunches/sso_rutan_archive.html

You'll find a photo of UK's capsule Nova II, in Future of Flight : The next 100 Years; x Prize : The competition Heats Up; image gallery. Sorry, I tried to do a copy, but I failed to do the paste in this e-mail.

It seems, Canada's team will do the testing in August.

Have fun !

alexa

[I, Brian]

There's a UK contender for the X Prize??

[alexa]

Originally Posted by I, Brian

There's a UK contender for the X Prize??

Yes.

[alexa]

Brian,

This is for you also :

STARCHASER STARTS ROCKET ENGINE PRODUCTION
05.17.2004
Manchester, United Kingdom (May 17, 2004) Starchaser Industries announce the start of production of their CHURCHILL Mk 3 liquid propellant rocket engine. This new engine is designed to deliver some 15 tonnes of usable thrust for a burn time of up to 70 seconds. The CHURCHILL family of rocket engines has been developed in-house at Starchaser and is key both to Starchaser's X PRIZE efforts and to the company's longer term business objective of opening the frontier of space for all. Two such engines will be used to power the STARCHASER 5 Reusable Launch Vehicle on its sub-orbital journey into space. For the complete press release click here.

ANSARI X PRIZE TEAMS HOLD 2-DAY SUMMIT IN LOS ANGELES
04.08.04
ANSARI X PRIZE leaders from 12 teams gathered at a 2-day meeting in Los Angeles to trade experiences, discuss the future of sub-orbital tourism, and discuss the X PRIZE CUP.

Pictured here (http://www.xprize.org/images/teams_041904_90x90.jpg): Dumitru Popescu, ARCA, Romania; Pablo DeLeon, DeLeon, Argentina; Oded Loebl, ILAT, Isreal; Eric Meier, Space Transport, USA; Steve Bennett, Starchaser, UK; Burt Rutan, Scaled Composites, USA; Randa Milliron, Interorbital Systems, USA, Chuck Lauer, Rocketplane LTD, USA; Brian Feeney, daVinci Project, Canada; Neil Milburn, Armadillo, USA, Tim Pickens, HARC, USA; Lori Sheerin, Canadian Arrow, Canada.

Regards,

alexa

[alexa]

Hi Brian,

I did a short recherche on the net and I found the name of U.K.'s ship. It's Starchaser V-Thunderstar. The team leader is Steve Bennett and the location of the team is in Chesire, England.

Here you have the address to see pictures :

http://www.xprize.org/teams/starchaser.html

Downloads are availables.

alexa

P.S. let me know if you could open the link. I have some difficult moments to insert it properly

[I, Brian]

Thanks for the info, alexa - much apperciated! It is rather typical of the British to make little comment on their attempt.

[alexa]

Hi Brian,

X Prize Foundation has promised several announcements for July 27. Interested ?

http://www.space.com/news/xprize_ann...nt_040721.html

alexa