A commercial manned test flight into space may symbolize the beginning of a new era in aviation * We will continue and update. It is possible that the launch will be towards the end of the day or during the night hours of tomorrow Israel time, and this is due to the ten-hour time difference between Israel and California
The science service
Update at the request of readers: the spacecraft SpaceShip1 will leave its parking lot at 06:30 West Coast Time - 16:30 Israel Time. The launch itself will be carried out depending on the weather conditions.
First private vehicle will be launched into space
by the "Haaretz" service
If the mission is successful, the team that built the vehicle may win the "Ansari X" prize, which offers $10 million to the first to carry out a civilian space mission
The first privately owned space vehicle will be launched into space on Monday. The vehicle, which was built by the aviation pioneer, Bret Rotan, will be launched by a rocket to an altitude of 100 km. So far, the maximum height reached by a private space vehicle is 64 km. The vehicle will only stay in space for a few minutes before it starts re-entering the atmosphere.
The engineer, Rotan, and his team hope that the launch will bring them closer to winning the "Ansari X" prize, which offers 10 million dollars to the first person who succeeds in proposing a civilian space mission. To win the prize, the team must reach an altitude of 100 km, twice within a period of two weeks.
The space vehicle we built includes many innovations in the field of aviation. Among other things, it uses an innovative fuel developed for it consisting of rubber and laughing gas. If the mission is successful, it could even allow the group to provide "space tourism" services.
Ahead of tomorrow's launch: Are commercial space flights the next step for humanity?
Kitty Hawk, Cape Canaveral, Mojave Desert.
The latter site may join the list of famous places in aviation history when a small aircraft takes off from its remote California desert airport on Monday.
Spaceship 1, designed by Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites, will fly to a height of about 50,000 feet (15,240 meters) with the help of a jet plane, called the "White Knight".
If all goes as planned, the spacecraft will fire up its rocket engines, which will bring it to a speed of Mach 3, three times the speed of sound, and up into space. The spacecraft will spend three minutes outside the Earth's atmosphere, thus becoming the first private spacecraft to carry a person into space and return to the site from which it was launched about an hour and a half later. This mission will be the spacecraft's 15th test flight.
However, will this be the beginning of the next revolution in flight or just another fireworks show hoping to bring the general public into space?
If you ask Scaled Composites, Spaceship 1's flight above Earth, to be exact 100 kilometers above Earth, will be the first in a series of many more flights, and subsequent flights may carry paying passengers.
"We hope that the flight will be an example for the future... for many more people, who wish not only to enjoy themselves but also to take advantage of the advantages in space," said Roten, the space engineer who leads the project.
"Just like when the first airplanes flew in the 1910s, we didn't know what good would come of them, but we did it because it was fun."
The team of aeronautics and space advocates believe that this flight will free the field from its degeneration, which began in the 1960s, when the aircraft industries and space technologies made the most impressive breakthroughs. Although impressive technological improvements have been made since then, very few inventions have been as revolutionary as the Apollo moon program or the SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft, Rutten said.
"The reason for this lack of progress is that no one had the courage to demand it," he said.
So, now that private manned space flights are almost part of reality, is space flight for all of us just around the corner?
Well, not exactly.
Such progress requires more, said Roger Launius, a space historian at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington.
"I wish them success. I hope they open this option to the general public," Leonius said. "I would like it to be more revolutionary."
There is no doubt that the flight of Spaceship 1 will make history. However, three factors, which have been found to be important in making aviation a part of our daily lives, will play an important role in spaceflight: government subsidies, commercial sponsors and enthusiasm among the general public.
The space industry may need the high level of investment, research and financial prowess that the aviation industry enjoyed during the twentieth century. Furthermore, flying a spacecraft in orbit around the Earth - the holy grail of spaceflight - is more difficult and complicated.
The escape velocity, which is necessary to reach the height where the shuttle cruises, a height of about 241 kilometers above the surface of the earth, is about 40,234 kilometers per hour. Rotten's spacecraft will reach a maximum speed of about 3572.7 kilometers per hour, before being dragged down by the Earth's gravity.
But this flight is only a springboard.
"Our goal is to show that you can develop a manned and safe space program at a very low cost," Roten said.
Creating a market for commercial airplane flights from the early days of aviation required more than just better airplanes and adventurous investors. It required public funding and a lot of imagination.
American aviation, despite being a thriving industry for decades, received substantial government funding until the 1960s. Government funding will surely play an important role in promoting private spaceflight in the future. A commercial sponsor was also necessary for the American aeronautics industry. The US Postal Service served in this role until 1911, and other commercial investors followed suit.
And of course, the flights had to stimulate the public's imagination before the commercial flights of a large number of people began. Decades of speeches, air shows and finally Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic flight from New York to Paris aboard the Spirit of St. Louis in 1927, all of whom helped make commercial flight possible.
Today, aviation historians do not debate whether a private manned flight to space will come to fruition - a successful launch on Monday will answer this question - but whether all the factors necessary to make manned flights into space a commonplace will materialize as they did for the aerospace industry, it is no longer so clear.
No matter how you look at it, the field of aeronautics developed at a dizzying pace. In 1903, two bicycle fixers flew a fabric-covered biplane into the skies in Kitty Hawk, Northern California, USA, sparking a new revolution. Only 23 years after the others Wright, the first commercial airplane "Western Air Express" took off, and by 1930 the main flight routes appeared.
Space flights, on the other hand, are mostly government-sponsored today. Despite an estimated $40 trillion in global investment over the past XNUMX years, a non-governmental space industry has not emerged.
However, the potential for an increase in private flights to space is there.
According to the Office of Space Commercialization of the United States Department of Commerce, commercial revenues from space in 2002 worldwide reached $105 billion, and are on the rise.
These numbers do not even include manned flights into space, which Rutten and others are promoting.
According to an article by Patrick Collins, professor of economics at Azabu University in Japan and founder of the website www.spacefuture.com, once suitable aircraft are available, the private space industry can begin to build a large tourism industry.
Collins presented a possible scenario for the development of space tourism until the year 2030, according to which 5 million passengers will fly into space each year, about 70,000 will reach orbit around the Earth with about 60 hotels that will host them. He said that thinking about space in this way is comparable to the revolution presented by Copernicus, when he proved that bodies in the solar system revolve around the sun.
That might seem overly optimistic, but Collins disagrees.
"I don't think this is an unacceptable view of the space industry given the industry's economic stagnation over the past fifty years," he wrote. "The consequences of breaking through the barriers are going to be amazing."
Inspired by the Ortig Prize, a $25,000 grant Lindbergh received for the first non-stop flight between New York and Paris, the $10 million Ansari X-prize will be awarded to the first to complete a civilian space flight.
Spaceship1 will have to defeat more than 20 teams from seven countries - some of which claim to be less than two months away from launch - to win the X-prize.
The money will be given to the first team, who will finance, build and privately launch a spaceship, which will carry three people or a pilot and a weight equivalent to two passengers to a sub-orbital orbit in space at a height of about 100 kilometers above the surface of the earth. The spacecraft must return safely and be launched once more within two weeks.
Rotten's flight on Monday will carry only one person, although the spacecraft has room for three passengers (the pilot's name has not yet been announced). Spaceship1 will compete for the X-prize later this year. It is likely that the winner will spark many investments in private flights to space, space enthusiasts hope.
And who will be one of the first private astronauts on Spaceship 1?
Rotten said he was inside.
"Let's put it this way, I will definitely be one of the first passengers."
