To Open The Sky

Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne

Burt Rutan, legendary designer of the Voyager aircraft, has finally made his move on the Ansari X-prize.

Actually, he made his move three years ago, in 2001. His company, Scaled Composites, Inc., began designing the carrier aircraft, White Knight, back then. The suborbital flyer, SpaceShipOne, came later. Rutan has said publicly that he would compete for the X Prize once it was fully funded. It reached that state a few months ago, and Rutan announced his competitor vehicle on 18 April 2003. This vehicle is designed only to meet the conditions for winning the prize, which means it must carry a human pilot plus 2 passengers (or equivalent weight) to 100 km1, bring them back safely, and do the same thing again within two weeks without substantial modification.

Technical data on White Knight and SpaceShipOne are still somewhat sparse. Right now, there is a link to a good description at Aviation Week, but I don't know how long it will stay there. See the Scaled Composites Web site for a basic description and some good pictures (including a larger version of the one above).

Update

On 17 December 2003, 100 years after the Wright Brothers first took an airplane aloft using its own motor, SpaceShipOne marked its own milestone: supersonic flight by a privately constructed aircraft.

SpaceShipOne dropped from the White Knight carrier aircraft at 48,000 feet near California City. At the controls, Brian Binnie pushed the ship on its hybrid rocket motor in a 3G, 60-degree climb to about 68,000 feet. After burnout of the rocket (which carried two-thirds of its full propellant load), Binnie put the craft in high-drag "shuttlecock" mode for 1 minute, then returned to glider configuration for a 12-minute descent to the landing at Mojave. The touchdown was a bit hard, and one landing gear broke. According to Rutan, the damage is minor and will be fixed in two weeks or so.

Rutan also revealed that Paul Allen2 is the secret benefactor who has been bankrolling the development of SpaceShipOne. More information can be found on the Scaled Composites Web site at Section Tier One.

Update

Mike Melvill was at the controls of SpaceShipOne for its first foray above the nominal boundary of space. The craft's innovative carrier plane, White Knight, carried it aloft from Mojave Spaceport early on the morning of 21 June 2004 as over 11,000 people watched. Ninety minutes later, it touched down safely on the tarmac (?). Designer Burt Rutan said the historic achievement had not been trouble-free. The craft veered slightly off course and its rocket engine may have shut down prematurely, preventing it from reaching its target altitude. Nevertheless, radar data indicate its trajectory did top out above 328,000 feet, making Melvill the first pilot to earn astronaut's wings in a vehicle built entirely with private funds.

Success!

Today, 4 October 2004, the second X-Prize flight of SpaceShipOne began as its carrier aircraft White Knight lifted off at 7:00 AM and carried it into a clear Mojave sky. (The first of the two required flights was accomplished last Wednesday.) SpaceShipOne separated from its mothership and immediately fired its hybrid rocket motor in a burn that took it to an altitude of 368,00 feet — breaking the old record of 354,000 feet set by the X-15 in August 1963. Witnessed by a crowd of over 12,000, Binnie landed the craft about 40 minutes later amid high-fives and the popping of champagne corks. (This update is a bit sketchy. As you can imagine, the primary Web sites are busy just now. I'll flesh it out soon.)

It is appropriate that this occurred on 4 October. That is the day when, in 1957, a grapefruit-sized satellite called Sputnik was lofted into orbit by the USSR. Sputnik's beeps announced the dawn of a new era, and so it is today. For winning the X-Prize symbolically ends forty-seven years of dominance of space flight by government agencies and ushers in the era of privately funded journeys into space. Indeed, Sir Richard Branson has already committed to licensing SpaceShipOne's technology for space tourism flights with an estimated ticket price of $200,000. However that develops, it is clear that commercial suborbital flights are near at hand. (Orbits will take just a little longer.) Since I've been predicting this for years, against considerable opposition, I feel pretty good right now.

As for the other 24 teams competing for the X-Prize, they are not out of the picture. There will be annual competitions held in New Mexico, and beyond that some sort of prize for the greater achievement of making orbit is now almost inevitable. After you read this, go and grab a glass of whatever celebratory drink you prefer. Let's raise a toast to Peter Diamandis, Paul Allen, Burt Rutan and everyone involved. And then let's get involved ourselves.