Mike Melvill Chosen To Fly SpaceShipOne

ansimon writes "Mike Melvill is chosen to fly SpaceShipOne to the outer limits of this rock that we call earth. Mike will be the first to earn his astronaut wings with a privately-developed aeroplane/rocket. A new era of space exploration is about to begin! Godspeed and come back safe, so the rest of us can go too..."

To save everyone some time tomorrow ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Let me be the first to post the relevant Google News link [google.com]. Should go live sometime after 6:30 AM PDT.

In other news...

[Anonymous Coward]

Share value of Mike's life insurance company plummeted.

First to earn his astronaut's wings....

[GameGod0]

... or the first person to get a privately funded cremation in outer space... you know, whatever floats his boat.

Yes, but

[Anonymous Coward]

does he run Linux?

Yeah

[Hangin10]

This is really cool.

I have to admit I'd rather be Captain of a
large ship rather than pilot of a small
tin can though...

Saving up for my first starship, which I suppose
will be available in the next 40 years or so,
around the time I'll be having my first mid-life
crisis (or for me, mid-life crisis'es...)

We need to start NOW if we want to have 40 million
people on the moon by 2371...

YURI GAGARIN

[Anonymous Coward]

MALCOLM SCOTT CARPENTER
ALAN SHEPARD
JOHN GLENN
BUZZ ALDRIN
NEIL ARMSTRONG

...Mike Melvill

SpaceShipOne will not only be making history because they will be breaking the tradition that only governments have the ability to get into space. They will also be breaking the tradition that only people with dramatic-sounding names get to perform important space-exploration milestones.

Fly, SpaceShipOne, fly! Fly for the drably-named of the world! For all the "I'm sorry, what's your name again"s of the world! For everyone named "Morton"! You represent all of us.

Damn.

[agent dero]

I must have just missed the longer straw, Mike _always_ gets to test things before me

aw, shucks

Re:Memorial Stone Thread

[blhath]

pepperoni and sausage
/obvious?

Bring A Towel =:-)

[drenehtsral]

I wonder if he's got the weight allowance to bring a towel, just in case...

Re:So far.....

[pyrrhonist]

Why would anyone wish harm upon someone trying to pave the waqy for the rest of us?

Well, I for one, am against paving The Waqy. What a sad day it is when people feel the need to pave over the poor innocent Waqy for the sake of progress. Does not The Waqy feel pain? Would you not defend the rights of The Waqy as your own? Think about it.

Hopefully he will be the first

[Anonymous Coward]

to be seen by the Vulcans in our solar system. This will usher in a new era of interstellar space travel. It will also give us new plotlines for Star Trek: Enterprise.

Re:To save everyone some time tomorrow ...

[mabinogi]

> I for one welcome our new.....

AHA!, thought you could sneak that one by did you?

Re:Just out of interest

[Anonymous Coward]

What would happen if each team competing for the X-Prize consecutively launched to their deaths one after the other? Is there aloud to be any government intervention after the first few disasters, barring the others from taking flight?

Isn't it obvious? None of the flights will be successful, because of govenment sabotage. The sabotage will result in deaths of not only the pilots, but also of people on the ground. This will cause public outrage, and laws will be passed preventing spaceflight by anyone other than the government.

All this is to protect the people from finding out about the visitors.

Re:Bring A Towel =:-)

[Barto]

Brings new meaning to the term "get high," eh?

19 years experience as a test pilot?

[ShallowThroat]

wow, that is pretty amazing, i didn't realize test pilots even lived that long.

Re:Yeah

[Pharmboy]

I'm guessing sex in low g might not be all it's cracked up to be.

Thats a chance I am willing to take :)

Re:To save everyone some time tomorrow ...

[tono]

My only question is if he's going to be playing "Magic Carpet Ride" on his way into space. :)

Re:YURI GAGARIN

[Punboy]

I thought a taco-not was a burrito!

Slashdot Poll

[craXORjack]

I wonder whether he answered yes or no [slashdot.org].

Obligatory

[Geoffreyerffoeg]

Take off every 'SpaceShipOne'!
You know what you doing.
Move 'SpaceShipOne'!
For great history!

Or, derived from Wikipedia's freeform translation [wikipedia.org]:

We have no time to lose. It's up to him.
All our hope for the future is in his hands.
Godspeed, SpaceShipOne pilot!

Re:I confess to a little excitement ...

[prockcore]

Getting into space isn't exactly reaching the stars, but it's the first step on the journey.

I'd rather not reach the stars.. I hear it's very warm there.

Re:To save everyone some time tomorrow ...

[mtnharo]

Or maybe "Spirit in the Sky".

Re:Yeah

[Anonymous Coward]

I guess bondage freaks will hardly notice the difference.

Re:To save everyone some time tomorrow ...

[mtnharo]

Yeah, I caught it. Mine was "Apollo 13".

Ironic?

[the_one_smiley]

From the Launch Event FAQ [scaled.com]:

Q: Can we fly a commercial flight to Mojave?
A: No, Mojave has no commercial airline service.

Doh.

Re:19 years experience as a test pilot?

[Just Some Guy]

But the job req asked for "15 years of experience as a test pilot, prior spice[sic] experience a plus,"

It's not enough to ask - you have to require it:

"Wanted: Test pilot for civilian sub-orbital vehicle. Requirements: a minimum of five successful flights to space in other civilian craft; 8 years programming in Java 2; 3 years with Windows Server 2003."

At least, that's how it'd read if my last company's HR wrote the ad.

With apologies...

[Anonymous Coward]

Paul Allen: OK, the spaceship is ready, wanna try it?

Burt Rutan (Very nervous as he looks at the spaceship): I'm not gonna try it, you try it first.

Paul: Oh, come on. Just try it.

Burt: No way, You try it.

Paul: Hey, let's get Mikey - he'll try anything.

Burt: Hey Mikey! (Whispers in Mike Melville's ear)

(Mike gets into SpaceShipOne and flies into space)

Paul and Burt: He likes it!

-hadohk

Re:Yeah

[blockhouse]

Would you pay $100,000 to get a bj in zero gravity?

Some people on this forum would pay $100,000 to get a bj here on earth. Some people would *have* to.

. . . but not me, of course.

Orion

[mnemonic_]

The Orion drive is our only hope.

Actually, he's the lucky one....

[Jetson]

Mike Melville is the ONLY member of the team who doesn't have to prepare two speeches....

Re:Why are astronauts wished Godspeed?

[Anonymous Coward]

And how does Godspeed compare to lightspeed?

Very simple.
Lightspeed: "SHIT, that's fast!"
Godspeed: "HOLY SHIT, that's fast!"

Melvin has already quit

[NineteenSixtyNine]

...after finding out his uniform has a red shirt.

Ape suits!

[QuasiRob]

OK, its only a short flight, so it doesnt give us all much time to get changed into them.

Re:I confess to a little excitement ...

[Paulrothrock]

Last night on "Best Week Ever" they decided that last week was the best week ever for Some Dude: Some dudes won the NBA championship, Some Dude is dating Christina Aguiwhatever, and now Some Dude is going to fly a spaceship.

Who knew VH1 could be so prescient?