The Proteus prototype broke many height records
Avi Blizovsky
Direct link to this page: https://www.hayadan.org.il/rutan1.html
Burt Rutan, the man behind the only plane to fly around the world without refueling, has now revealed the first civilian space program.
The system, which is in an advanced stage of development, will bring the first civilian astronauts to the threshold of space and may also give a boost to flying passengers into orbit.
A manned cabin, rocket engines and a plane from which the passenger cabin will be launched into space were unveiled for the first time at Rotan's base in California last week.
The experts are taking the initiative seriously, said Rotan, who hopes to win the X-prize for the first non-governmental manned flight into space. Rutan says he is tired of waiting for others to provide cheap access to space, citing the enormous cost of both American and Russian manned flights.
Over the past two years he has been secretly developing the manned suborbital aircraft in California's Mojave Desert. "The event is not a dream, a forecast or a prototype model. We will show the world a real flight system: a plane for high-altitude flight, a manned spacecraft ready for flight, a new type of rocket propulsion system and much more."
Rotan's company, Scaled Composites, describes itself as the most prolific company in the field of aircraft development in the world. The company developed several advanced aeronautical projects such as the Voyager plane that circled the world without refueling for 9 days in 1986. The company is also a main partner in the development of the Pegasus missiles that will be launched into space under the wing of a transport plane. This technology has already succeeded in putting several small satellites into orbit.
The rocket and the passenger compartment that will take the passengers into space will be launched from a Proteus type aircraft that will be lifted by Tus. Proteus has so far achieved three altitude records - a height of 62 thousand feet (19 kilometers) and a flight with a load of one ton to a height of 55,878 feet (17 kilometers and 32 meters) in 2000.
All over the world, many teams are gathering to try to win the 10 million dollar prize intended for non-governmental groups that will launch a team of at least three people into space and return safely to Earth. The flight should be made twice within 10 days. (A team from Israel also participates in the competition, see link). Many competitors use conventional rockets, but with balloons that will take them to a high altitude and some even try more daring systems.
This is not just the development of another research plane, but of a complete manned space program with all the supporting components," he said. "We are not looking for funding and we are not selling anything. We are in the middle of an important research program - to see if manned access to space can be done by others and not only through expensive government programs.
After the exposure we will return to the shadow again to complete our flight experiments and perform a space flight," Rotan said.
The experts expect that the first attempts to launch within the framework of the X-prize will be carried out at the beginning of 2004 by Rotan and perhaps by some other competitors for the X-prize.
https://www.hayadan.org.il/BuildaGate4/general2/data_card.php?Cat=~~~505935059~~~169&SiteName=hayadan
