SpaceShipOne to Attempt Second Flight on Monday 314
m_member writes "There is a very cool video of the recent SpaceShipOne flight (on the Scaled video page) as covered by Slashdot. It shows some angles not on the webcast and most impressively has internal footage from when the roll occurred in the ascent. There are no M&Ms this time but Melville takes a few holiday snaps!" Gogo Dodo writes "After a successful first flight for the X Prize, SpaceShipOne is a go for launch to claim the X Prize on Monday. Takeoff is at 7am Pacific, ignition at 8am." October 4 will be the anniversary of the Sputnik launch.
Re:Monopoly Money (Score:0, Informative)
Video mirrors (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Congrats! (Score:1, Informative)
Re:That's hot (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I hope they can do it without the spin-stabiliz (Score:4, Informative)
CNN story [cnn.com]
Re:Other competitors (Score:5, Informative)
In addition, they have stated that they will be proceeding with the launches regardless of whether the SpaceShipOne project succeeds in claiming the prize or not. Their goal is to prove that they can do it, even if they don't win the prize.
Re:Other competitors (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Other competitors (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Have we heard anything official... (Score:4, Informative)
Robust design (Score:5, Informative)
For when the site gets slashdotted. (Score:2, Informative)
or
http://www.mirrordot.org/stories/23a07365766c74d7
BitTorrent download (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I thought they had to carry 3 people? (Score:4, Informative)
BTW, Burt Rutan mentioned just after the last flight that he might be a passenger in the next one.
Canadian Arrow Team (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I hope they can do it without the spin-stabiliz (Score:4, Informative)
Objects that reach orbital velocity are going far faster and thus generate far more heat then something that effectively goes straight up and straight down such as SpaceShipOne (relative to something like the space shuttle that does achieve orbit).
Re:I hope they can do it without the spin-stabiliz (Score:1, Informative)
Re:I wonder... (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Or 1 + equivalent weight (Score:5, Informative)
No, actually they couldn't.
N328KF [162.58.35.241] is registered as an experimental glider. Under Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) that means two things:
a) You can't carry passengers at all until the craft has been satisfactorily flight tested.
b) You can never carry passengers for hire.
Whether or not at this point SSO has been flight tested is up to the FAA. It's usually about 40 hours of testing, and I have no clue whether they've put that much time on the airframe at this point or not and whether the FAA inspector is happy with the suborbital flight tests they've done. In any event, they won't be able to recover costs from passengers until they develop a certificated platform.
Video Mirror Up, with MPEG conversion (soon) (Score:4, Informative)
RocketCam (TM) Videos [eclipticenterprises.com]
RocketCam (TM) Video Mirror at RocketCam.Space.TV [space.tv]
MPEG and QT conversions of the WMV will be going up in a few minutes, as well, for all you linux and mac users. (As of 12:30pm PST, should be up by 1:00PST/4:00EST).
Disclaimer: I'm Ecliptic's webmaster by subcontract.
Enjoy.
-Ev
Re:X15 not as high. (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Other competitors (Score:4, Informative)
The X-Prize Cup is a bit more oriented towards "racing" team competition than as a stepping stone towards commercial space travel/tourism.
Not that the racing concept isn't useful for publicity and development of parts of the playing field, but they aren't the same prizes.
Video Mirror with MPEG for Linux Users (Score:3, Informative)
I just uploaded MPEG conversions, as well, so Linux users (and Macs without Windows Media Player) get to join in the fun.
Disclaimer: I'm Ecliptic's webmaster.
Re:Roll all the way (Score:2, Informative)
The theory is the roll was started by upper level winds, which was correctable. Mellville says he stepped on a rudder pedal a bit too agressively which started the unrequested roll.
If you look at the design, the rudders are above the thrust line. If you give a rudder input, you will get a roll in the same direction. Its like having built in dihedral. Once the roll started, they were in the upper stmosphere. The aero surfaces would be pretty much ineffective, but the RCS would not be strong enough yet to control the craft. By that time the feathering system could be opened, and any roll/yawing moments would be dampened as the craft comes back into thicker atmosphere. You even see the pilot stop fiddling with the controls once the roll was slowed and start taking pictures.
You could ask 'well why not put the wings and vertial stabs in line with the thrust line?" My thinking is that you want the weight further below the line so that on reentry it will want to come down right side up. It would help it be more stable on the way down and make sure the craft reenters at the corect attitude (rather than inverted or backward).
Re:Canadian Arrow Team (Score:3, Informative)
Of course I'm not saying space travel is not complicated. Its just that skydiving becomes a lot more complicated when you travel higher than 15,000ft. I'm sure there'll be some people that will do it, but I don't see it as something that many skydivers will be willing/able (skill-wise or finallcially) to do.
Cheers
Re:Canadian Arrow Team (Score:3, Informative)