SpaceShip One wins X-Prize

[SurfD]

'nuff said.

Google for the information yourself (read: Im too damn lazy to do it this early in the morning).

Cant wait for the first privately run space tours to start :P

[Shannow]

Anyone watch the show on Discovery channel about this? 'Into the Black' or something.

Anyway fantastic show, the ship had cameras all over it , plus DC had cameras in the operations trailer etc. The footage as the rocket fires and the pilot struggles to keep the thing pointed in the right direction is damn cool. Actually there were heaps of good parts, just go watch it.

This ship itself is an amazing piece of aerospace engineering.

[Arcadian Del Sol]

The documentary confirmed, in my eyes, that we are SO not ready for commercial spaceflight, and that this group of engineers was beyond lucky.

The fundamental unwritten law of aerodynamic flight is that the greater the number of moving parts, the greater the risk of catastrophic failure - and Space Ship One is almost 85% (guesstimate) made of moving parts - on a craft that has YET to see time in a wind tunnel.

The documentary contained a great deal of "oh my god he's going to die" time, compared to what one would consider tolerable in a commercial flight. When flying a jet from DC to LA, there is pratically zero minutes of "oh my god we're going to die" - and honestly, that should be the factor that determines whether or not we're ready for commercial space flight. Not because ten guys slingshot a giant winged losenge really high into the air.

[HaemishM]

I seem to remember the movie, "The Right Stuff" being composed of a lot of "holy shit, he's going to die" moments. Not to mention there's a reason "Houston, we have a problem" has entered the cultural lexicon.

Baby steps with such things as complicated as human beings defying the laws of gravity usually involve something and someone getting smeared across a few miles of the landscape.

[Shannow]

When you consider how complex a modern day passenger jet aircraft is  compared to Spaceship One I think its an amazing achievement.

And thats not luck, its engineering on a budget...:)

Tommorow they could take that ship, put a pilot in it with two tourists and shoot it 62 (iirc) miles into the atomsphere and do it again a week later.

Thats still a damn cool accomplishment.

[Riggswolfe]

They have to start somewhere. One of the few initiatives Pres. Bush ever proposed that I liked was sending a man to Mars. (to bad he dropped it quickly after it got little support).

[Krakrok]

Tommorow they could take that ship, put a pilot in it with two tourists and shoot it 62 (iirc) miles into the atomsphere and do it again a week later.

Hrmm.. where does it say that?

[SirBruce]

The whole point of the X-Prize launch was to do a fast turn-around in under a week, which is what they already did.

The craft has room for 3 and carried the weight of 2 passangers plus the pilot; they just didn't want to risk 3 people in these early flights.

It certainly seems like a good way to get more publicity and set another record is to do a 3-person private suborbital flight before someone else does. :)

Bruce

[SurfD]

hehe, market it as the new wave in "Extreeme Sports" and strap cameras all over the thing, and you could probably get loads of funding from Fox for your project :P

[Shannow]

Well they already got the cameras, thats what made the documentary so good. Some fantastic footage.

[Arcadian Del Sol]

I seem to remember the movie, "The Right Stuff" being composed of a lot of "holy shit, he's going to die" moments. Not to mention there's a reason "Houston, we have a problem" has entered the cultural lexicon.

Hence the lack of a commercial space program in the late 60s. Maybe we were more cautious then, or held human life on a higher pedestal.

[Arcadian Del Sol]

Tommorow they could take that ship, put a pilot in it with two tourists and shoot it 62 (iirc) miles into the atomsphere and do it again a week later.

Thats still a damn cool accomplishment.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, please take your seats and buckle up - we are about to arrive at today's destination which is the self-same runway from which we launched ten minutes ago. Thank you for flying Virgin Galactic and enjoy your stay at the city you just left moments ago."

[Shannow]

You don't think people would pay for an oppurtunity to see the world from 62 miles up? Christ people pay money to fly on a jet just to see Antartica.

Technology and costs have changed since the 1960's. And yes, occasionally human enterprise goes forward with the risk of loss of life, otherwise Drake never sails around the world, Cook never maps the east coast of Australia, and Ug the Hairy never learns how to swim..

[HaemishM]

I seem to remember the movie, "The Right Stuff" being composed of a lot of "holy shit, he's going to die" moments. Not to mention there's a reason "Houston, we have a problem" has entered the cultural lexicon.

Hence the lack of a commercial space program in the late 60s. Maybe we were more cautious then, or held human life on a higher pedestal.

Or it might have been that such a thing wasn't legally allowed then?

[Arcadian Del Sol]

I guess I missed that era in American Politics. It was illegal to build a spaceship?

[HaemishM]

In contrast to the early days of aviation, activities in both the atmosphere and space are governed today by a complex legal framework which is not appro-priate for, and does not currently permit commercial passenger flights to and from space.

From this page about the future of commerical space flight.

In the USA the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) has created up various categories of certification depending upon the aircraft's gross weight and its intended usage (cargo, scheduled passenger traffic, general aviation, etc). Certification typically involves performing more than 1000 test-flights in order to collect extensive operating statistics; the average cost of certifying a small business jet aircraft can run in excess of $100 million, or up to 10 times the cost of developing the initial prototype vehicle. The time taken for such certification commonly exceeds three years. If such large investments of time and money are to be required of the nascent space tourism industry, great difficulties would be caused that would seriously hinder the creation of any viable start-up space travel companies.

[Arcadian Del Sol]

A "yep its true" would have satisfied me.

[HaemishM]

This is the Internet. One must display ones Google Fu when challenged.

[Jayce]

*golf clap*