Skilled Composite won the X-Prize
Dikla Oren
Spacecraft pilot Brian Binney. Credit: Space.com
Direct link to this page: https://www.hayadan.org.il/xprize041004.html
Spaceship1 won the X-Prize!
The private spaceship SpaceShip1, built by the Scaled Composite company, flew into space twice in five days, thereby winning a cash prize of ten million dollars.
Spaceship1 recently completed the second flight as part of the attempt to win the prize. The required height was achieved, and Scaled Composite made history by winning the X-Prize. The historic flight was held on the anniversary of the first transatlantic flight from London to New York (1958) and the launch of the Sputnik satellite (1957).
The Scaled Composites company is owned by Brett Rutan - an aviation pioneer, and Paul Allen, one of the founders of Microsoft, and now they have been joined by the owner of the Virgin airline, Richard Branson, who ordered several spacecraft based on Spaceship 1 to fly paid passengers to the brink of space.
17:00 - The spacecraft said goodbye to the White Knight and is now on its way back
Spaceship 1 flew into space, apparently reached the necessary altitude, and is now on its way back to Earth. Later, a press conference will be held, where the representatives of Scaled Composite and X-Prize will announce whether the height required to win has been reached.
16:00 - Spaceship 1 took off
The private spaceship Spaceship 1 took off aboard the "White Knight" plane. The current flight will be piloted by 51-year-old test pilot Brian Binney.
This is the second flight of the spacecraft in an attempt to win the X-Prize (and the third flight into space). The previous flight was held, as I recall, on September 29. If the spacecraft manages to reach a height of 100 kilometers above the ground, the company Scaled Composites, headed by Bret Rotten, will win ten million dollars on behalf of the X-Prize.
Good luck with the spacecraft, and more updates later.
Spaceship-1 won the space flight competition
Monday, October 4, 2004, 17:50 pm By: Walla system!
The winning spacecraft in the air. Funded by one of the founders of Microsoft (Photo: Reuters) the private aircraft managed to reach space for the second time and awarded its operators 10 million dollars. The competition is designed to promote the privatization of flights outside the atmosphere
The rocket vehicle, known as "Space Ship-1", managed to leave the atmosphere for the second time today and earned its operators and planners a prize of 10 million dollars, for winning a competition designed to encourage private flights into space. The aircraft was financed, among other things, by Paul Allen, one of the founders of Microsoft.
The AP reported that the manned aircraft passed the desired altitude shortly after taking off from the runway in the Mojave Desert in California. He began his flight attached to a carrier plane and was released from it at an altitude of 46 feet. The small spacecraft activated its rocket engines to reach an altitude of about 100 kilometers - the point generally considered to be the end of the atmosphere and the beginning of space. The final data will only be received at a later stage, but the celebrations on the ground have already begun while it seems that the spacecraft met the minimum target. The head of the American Aviation Administration, Marion Blakey, said on the test site that this is "the real front of aviation".
The competition, founded eight years ago by businessman Paul Diamandis under the name "X Prize". He hoped that the competition would do for private spaceflight what the Ortigue Prize had done for transatlantic flights. In 1927, Charles Lindbergh won the Ortigue Prize after successfully completing the task and winning 25 thousand dollars.
As mentioned, in order to win the competition the aircraft had to fly into space twice and return, in a period of two weeks. The aircraft was flown today by Brian Binney, whose identity has been kept secret. Last week pilot Michael Malbil took off in the spaceship.
The private spacecraft is launched again - on its way to the prize
Preliminary news published this morning in Haretz and Walla news
At the peak of altitude, the tiny shuttle unexpectedly began dozens of rapid rotations. A private organization will award 10 million dollars to those who manage to build a spaceship by themselves and launch it into space. Of the 20 teams that have been working on the task for several years, Michael Melville's team is the closest to winning
When everyone is talking about privatization, it was only a matter of time until the trend reached the space sector as well. After official institutions of respectable countries have been involved in the field for years, the time has come for the private entrepreneurs - and today may be their day of celebration.
In 1996, a private organization called the "X prize foundation" announced that it would award a prize of 10 million dollars to whoever would manage, on their own, to build a spaceship, launch it into space and return home safely. The conditions, in fact, are a little more complex. The spacecraft must complete two flights within two weeks, in which a pilot and two passengers - or a pilot and the equivalent weight of two additional passengers - will reach an altitude of 100 kilometers, an arbitrary but accepted landmark as the boundary between the Earth's atmosphere and outer space.
About 20 teams from around the world picked up the gauntlet and worked hard on the task in recent years, on the way to the coveted prize. The claimants to the crown at the moment are men
"SpaceShipOne" ("Spaceship 1"). On June 21, Michael Melville already flew the shuttle plane to an altitude of 100 km; It was just a test flight, a warm-up for the real thing. Last Wednesday he did it again, equipped with the correct weight load. Today he will try to complete the task, and pick the prize.
On Wednesday, at 7:10 a.m., the shuttle took off from a launch point in California. First it was raised to a height of 50 thousand feet by a carrier aircraft. At this altitude, the carrier aircraft, known as the "White Knight", released the shuttle so that it could start the engine and qualify for maximum altitude. SpaceShipOne reached, according to unofficial reports, an altitude of 337,500 feet (102.8 kilometers) – higher than the goal set by the competition team, 328 thousand feet (100 kilometers). At 8:34 the plane with the unique shape was already on the ground again.
And as often happens in privatization processes, even this time the private entrepreneurs treat the matter with a little more grace and humor than the official bodies involved in the field. "The plane flew like a dream," the experienced Melville pilot told The New York Times after landing. However, at the peak of altitude, the tiny shuttle unexpectedly began dozens of rapid rolls. At first it flipped every two seconds, and gradually slowed down the rolling rate thanks to the efforts of Melville, who was able to take control of it using stabilizing jets. According to him, it was an unintentional "rolling of victory", and he received a lot of training to deal with problems of this type, and he did not feel at all that he was in danger, nor did he feel any discomfort. "I thought it was pretty cool," he added. The spectators who followed the winding trail of the plane from the ground were less amused, and some even choked with anxiety, as the "New York Times" reports.
The team responsible for the design of the shuttle plane, Burt Rutan, initially called the roll a "flight control anomaly". The 63-year-old Melville raised the possibility that he accidentally caused the problem himself. "I may have pressed the steering wheel at the wrong moment - when you get old, you do things like that," he said with a smile. Rotan explained that the tendency of the plane to roll has been known for some time, but that it would be difficult to fix such a problem in an already built plane. He added that in the next version of the shuttle plane this deficiency will be corrected.
The shuttle plane and the carrier plane were designed by Rotan and financed by Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft. Although the last flight did not include any other passengers, one woman was still there: the night before Rotan decided to add the ashes of his mother, who died about four years ago, to the luggage. "She flew today," he said in a broken voice to the "New York Times" reporter after landing.
Melville, for his part, takes the matter a little less seriously. After the flight in June he announced that he would not fly SpaceShipOne again. Last Wednesday he reported for duty after the designated pilot fell ill. He doesn't treat today's flight as his life's dream either: "If no one else wants to fly it, I'll be happy to do it."
Ydan X-PRIZE
https://www.hayadan.org.il/BuildaGate4/general2/data_card.php?Cat=~~~968986608~~~169&SiteName=hayadan
