Public spaceflight approaches

Ah - the 60 day countdown has begun. :)

Thanks for that. :)
 
That doesn't work here either -

- BUT if you look on the homepage:

http://web1-xprize.primary.net/

at the top right, it has a Flash list of all the competitors. I didn;t actually realise there were so many, and it has the British and Canadian entries up there. :)
 
Sorry about the link. I didn't do any mistake about the address. I have checked 3 times.

If you go to the main address on www.xprize.org you can find the article I was taliking about in the press relesese for July 27.

Alexa
 
Just to follow up the event : da Vinci rocket' s launch was announced for October 2th, 3 days after SpaceShipOne's flight.
 
The competition for the $10,000,000 is getting hotter. Another team, Arca, managed to launch its roket into space on Sept. 9th.

Here you have the press release from www.xprize.org :
Black Sea— September 11, 2004

BREAKING NEWS: ARCA TEAM SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHES DEMONSTRATOR ROCKET

ARCA TEAM SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHES DEMONSTRATOR ROCKET

The September 9th test flight of the ARCA Team's Demonstrator 2B vehicle soaring high above the Midia Cape on the Black Sea. Despite some intital technical and weather problems resulting in delays and complications, the test of the world's first composite materials monopropellant rocket engine was a success, reaching an altitude of 1,000 meters and speeds up to 630 km/hr.

Gathering a few days before the launch, members of the ARCA Team conducted press conferences, prepped the site and the vehicle and underwent final technical training. The launch, originally set for 8 September was pushed back a day when it was discovered that the main fuel pipe was pulled out from the fuel tank because the rings intended to keep that pipe in place were not fixed. On the morning of the 9th, another surprise awaited the ARCA team, the winds. Demonstrator 2B was intended to launch in about 14 km/hr winds, but the readouts were showing 60 km/hr. Resourceful as always, ARCA recalculated the launch configuration and reduced the fuel to make the new winds within safety limits. Command and Control recalculated the trajectory within 10 minutes of take off and the vehicle landed exactly at the safety zone limit. Said Dumitru Popescu, ARCA Team leader, "The flight was almost PERFECT! We are extremely happy!"

Approximately 90 journalists from Romania, Austria and Germany attended the launch and it was broadcast on many television stations. For more details about the flight and the ARCA Team, visit www.arcaspace.ro




Reminder : SpaceShipOne has promised the first flight with passanger on Sept. 29th. The Canadian team, Da Vinci has its launch planned on Oct. 2nd 2004.
 
Brian,

SpaceShipOne did it again, today, as promised. Here you have the link and some photos:

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/xprize_success_040929.html

They already plan space tourism with Virgin Galactica (see in this article).
At the end you have another link for the full coverage story.

Photo 1: SpaceShipOne, attached to White Knight, taxis out as the Mojave Aerospace Ventures Team attempts to win the Ansari X Prize in Mojave, Calif. on Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2004.
Photo 2: Pilot Michael Melvill rockets skyward aboard SpaceShipOne after igniting the spacecraft's engine in its first Ansari X Prize flight.
Photo 3: Cameras aboard SpaceShipOne catch the spacecraft's flight in space, with the Earth seen below, during the spacecraft's Sept. 29, 2004 flight

I hope you'll enjoy it. :)

P.S. I hope the link work this time ;)
 

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I would like to go on this someday too. Just because i want to see what the planet I live on looks like, what it would have looked like on the day God made it and before He put any inhabitants upon it.
 
Try to save some money for this purpose and in the next few years you may buy a ticket. SpaceShipOne's succes made this possible. :)
 
I received this letter from X Prize org today. I post it to the attention of those interested to fly one day into the space.

Space Entrepreneurs Resolve To Create Industry Group to Promote Safety Standards and Growth of the Personal Spaceflight Industry

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 8, 2005--Leaders from the newly emerging Personal Spaceflight Industry today announced their intent to organize an industry federation to design and uphold the standards and processes necessary to ensure public safety and promote growth of the personal spaceflight industry. The group also resolved to set up a Voluntary Personal Spaceflight Industry Consensus Standards Organization to develop Industry Consensus Standards to implement the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004. Membership in the proposed federation would be open to all US non-profit and commercial entities developing suborbital commercial passenger travel.

To date, there have been three successful suborbital spaceflights, which operated under an experimental license granted by the Federal Aviation Administration. Looking to the near future when these new space vehicles will carry passengers and crew, the new Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004, passed by Congress and signed by President Bush in December 2004, empowers government to provide for the safety of the uninvolved public through launch licensing, as well as establish Industry Consensus Standards to provide for the safety of passengers and crew on these new vehicles.

The group of entrepreneurs believes that adherence to new and rigorous safety standards that go beyond the letter of the law will be essential to promote the safety and growth of the industry. Accordingly, the group has expressed its intent to initially focus on standards and procedures in areas critical to vehicle safety, medical requirements, and training for passengers and crew.

"Just as the personal computer revolution dramatically increased performance and lowered the cost of computing, the market for Personal Spaceflight promises to transform the economics of space operations," said Gregg Maryniak, Executive Director of the X PRIZE Foundation and spokesperson for the new Personal Spaceflight Federation.

"The only way to reduce the cost of spaceflight is to do more of it," Maryniak continued. "In 2004, there were only 15 worldwide commercial space launches because there were only 15 commercial satellite payloads.(1) Personal spaceflight promises a much larger market and will provide the demand that the industry needs to grow and economize."

Recent market studies indicate a strong and consistent demand for personal spaceflight, with some 70 percent of respondents in the developed world responding that they would be willing to buy a ticket to see the Earth from space when such trips are commercially available.

Several "new space" US companies currently are developing the vehicles needed to meet this demand for human suborbital spaceflight. Public belief in the Personal Spaceflight Industry peaked following the recent award of the $10 million ANSARI X PRIZE, won by the Mojave Aerospace Ventures Team with the two successful flights of SpaceShip One on September 29th and October 4th, 2004.

Space entrepreneurs working to create the new federation include: John Carmack, Armadillo Aerospace; Burt Rutan, Scaled Composites; Elon Musk, SpaceX; Alex Tai, Virgin Galactic; Jeff Greason, XCOR; Dr. Peter Diamandis, X PRIZE Foundation; Gary Hudson, t/Space/HMX; George French, Pioneer Rocketplane; Stuart Witt, Mojave Spaceport, Eric Anderson, Space Adventures, and Michael S. Kelly, Chairman, RLV Working Group of COMSTAC
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, the Department of Transportation's industry advisory committee. Gregg Maryniak and Diane Murphy, executives of the X PRIZE Foundation, will facilitate the organization's liaison efforts with industry, US Government and media.
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Yippee! But only the filfthy rich will be able to afford it when it first starts going up. I mean 10 million dollars prize money for the first spaceship one is quite a bit.
What is it like a quarter of a million per person per trip?
 
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