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BoomStick · Oct 4, 2004, 11:29 AM

Way to go Burt!!!!

We crafty Americans leave the rest of the world in the dust with our ingenuity yet again.

d4nth3m4n · Oct 4, 2004, 11:34 AM

That's Really Really cool.

(not that Americans did it per s�, just that anyone did)

ThinkInsane · Oct 4, 2004, 11:37 AM

I don't know if all the "USA USA" rah-rah is called for, but it's definitely cool.

Rock on Spaceship One! (Even though I was rooting for Carmack's team)

BoomStick · Oct 4, 2004, 11:40 AM

I'm glad to see Burt win this as his engine engineer was killed during the development process.

He crashed test flying his own airplne. The whole project was dedicated to him.

turtle777 · Oct 4, 2004, 11:41 AM

Originally posted by ThinkInsane:
I don't know if all the "USA USA" rah-rah is called for, but it's definitely cool.

Maybe, The USA will REALLY land on the moon someday...

-T

Peter · Oct 4, 2004, 11:50 AM

USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!!

FulcrumPilot · Oct 4, 2004, 12:14 PM

Well, I will be one of the passengers in the next 10 years or so, you can bet on it!!

go Burt!!! go Virgin Galactic!! High time we took the first few steps to get the hell outa this mad planet!!

drive-thru · Oct 4, 2004, 12:15 PM

Originally posted by BoomStick:
We crafty Americans leave the rest of the world in the dust with our ingenuity yet again.

Congratulations Burt Rutan & team...& America...& BoomStick. Great achievement, all of you.

djohnson · Oct 4, 2004, 12:15 PM

Pretty cool!

Now where are the warp engines?

SimeyTheLimey · Oct 4, 2004, 12:15 PM

The point isn't that Spaceship One is American. I'm just happy to see private enterprise making space travel more accessible. This is the way it should be. Spaceplanes are supposed to have "Pan-Am" painted on the side.

Next up: the flying cars I was promised as a kid.

AB^2=BCxAC · Oct 4, 2004, 12:26 PM

I still would have preferred to see the race won by a vehicle that didn't need a piggy back ride into moderate altitudes before it fires its own jets. *sigh* Much cooler would be if the prize was won by a ship that could take off from anywhere without hitching a ride.

theolein · Oct 4, 2004, 12:31 PM

PIty about the nationalistic flag waving further up, but all the same way to go Burt Rutan and co. That's really an amazing achievement. I can't wait until Richard Branson starts the first paid flights with Virgin Galactic.

SimeyTheLimey · Oct 4, 2004, 12:34 PM

Originally posted by AB^2=BCxAC:
I still would have preferred to see the race won by a vehicle that didn't need a piggy back ride into moderate altitudes before it fires its own jets. *sigh* Much cooler would be if the prize was won by a ship that could take off from anywhere without hitching a ride.

I don't follow that argument. Compare SpaceShip One -- which can take off and land from any reasonably large airstrip -- with a rocket which requires a complex purpose-built launch pad. I think the former is much more promising. It's what they should have done with the space shuttle but didn't because of budget cuts.

AB^2=BCxAC · Oct 4, 2004, 12:41 PM

Originally posted by SimeyTheLimey:
I don't follow that argument. Compare SpaceShip One -- which can take off and land from any reasonably large airstrip -- with a rocket which requires a complex purpose-built launch pad. I think the former is much more promising. It's what they should have done with the space shuttle but didn't because of budget cuts.

But that, to me, is the biggest technological hurdle worth a big prize: figuring out how to get the lift and acceleration without all the special launchsite and piggy-back hoohah, all in a re-usable spacecraft. I feel this craft is only half-way there.

wdlove · Oct 4, 2004, 12:45 PM

Congratulations to the SpaceShip One Team. The real beginning of commercial space flight.

SimeyTheLimey · 01:19 PM

Originally posted by AB^2=BCxAC:
But that, to me, is the biggest technological hurdle worth a big prize: figuring out how to get the lift and acceleration without all the special launchsite and piggy-back hoohah, all in a re-usable spacecraft. I feel this craft is only half-way there.

Compare the launch facility Alan Shepard's rocket required for its suborbital flight and compare that to taking off from an ordinary runway. Compared to that, SpaceShip one is positively conventional. The thing can take off and land basically anywhere.

What Rutan is doing is more like the way Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier. They used a mother ship too. It doesn't detract from Yeager at all, and nor should it detract from Rutan's team.

Edit: what Rutan has done is really directly comparable to the X-15 of the 1960s. That was launched from a mother ship too. The difference is that Rutan's ship is smaller, cheaper, flies (slightly) higher, is probably safer, and can carry 2 passengers. Yea for free enterprise!

FulcrumPilot · Oct 4, 2004, 01:11 PM

Originally posted by AB^2=BCxAC:
I still would have preferred to see the race won by a vehicle that didn't need a piggy back ride into moderate altitudes before it fires its own jets. *sigh* Much cooler would be if the prize was won by a ship that could take off from anywhere without hitching a ride.

That is if you can raise 10 mil for another award!

Mastrap · Oct 4, 2004, 01:12 PM

Originally posted by SimeyTheLimey:
Spaceplanes are supposed to have "Pan-Am" painted on the side.

Looks like Branson will get there first:

"Branson, chairman of Virgin Atlantic Airways, announced last Monday that he would invest $25 million in a new space venture, to be called Virgin Galactic. The project will license Scaled Composite's SpaceShipOne technology for commercial suborbital flights starting at about $200,000."

Well done the team. I still want to see these mad Canadian launch their ship from a high altitude balloon though.

SimeyTheLimey · Oct 4, 2004, 01:16 PM

Originally posted by Mastrap:
Looks like Branson will get there first:

Branson's just copying Stanley Kubrick.

DBursey · Oct 4, 2004, 01:48 PM

Congratulations to the SpaceShipOne team for setting the bar for commercial spaceflight with two inspiring flights! Americans have every right to be proud of the successful effort made on their behalf in winning this international competition.

Kudos to the remaining teams whose efforts have yet to reach sub-orbital fruition. I hope they all intend to follow through with launch objectives for various individual project entries, as do the teams for both Canadian X-Prize entries:

Canadian Arrow Project
Da Vinci Project

vexborg · Oct 4, 2004, 02:54 PM

Originally posted by Peter:
USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!!

*buuuurp*

Oct 4, 2004, 03:09 PM

Originally posted by turtle777:
Maybe, The USA will REALLY land on the moon someday...

Maybe your tinfoil helmet is on too tight.
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html

turtle777 · Oct 4, 2004, 03:18 PM

Originally posted by hayesk:
Maybe your tinfoil helmet is on too tight.
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html

Are you always that humor impaired ?
Did you notice that --->

?

-t

jcadam · Oct 4, 2004, 03:19 PM

Originally posted by DBursey:
Congratulations to the SpaceShipOne team for setting the bar for commercial spaceflight with two inspiring flights! Americans have every right to be proud of the successful effort made on their behalf in winning this international competition.

Canadian Arrow Project
Da Vinci Project

Absolutely, and I think the world would be better if everyone stuck to their relative strengths:

Europe: Science
America: Engineering (we take your science and make useful sh*t with it)
Asia: Reverse-engineering America's sh*t and manufacturing cheap knock-offs.

Seriously, the news makes me happy. Hybrid rocket engines eh? Neat things that, ultra-stable and safe in storage. I was a comp sci. student in college a few years back, had the opportunity to play around a bit with those (worked with the engineering students on several projects), hybrid because the fuel is solid and the oxidizer is liquid or gas. We had a small one strapped to a table, the fuel "rods" were cylinders of plexiglas, the oxidizer was a tank of oxygen (nitrous oxide is safer, but more expensive). Thing was loud as hell, but cool.

BoomStick · Oct 4, 2004, 03:27 PM

Wow, the other projects are decades behind Burt Rutan's vision.

It's incredable that SS1 is a standard cable and shaft controlled aircraft with no computer assist.

Angus_D · Oct 4, 2004, 04:05 PM

GO AMERICA!!!!!!!!! YOU SHOWED DEM TERRORISTS!@!!!@U*(!&$*!&@�$&*@�!!!

Peter · Oct 4, 2004, 04:14 PM

Originally posted by Angus_D:
GO AMERICA!!!!!!!!! YOU SHOWED DEM TERRORISTS!@!!!@U*(!&$*!&@�$&*@�!!!

phoenixboy70 · Oct 4, 2004, 04:39 PM

so, how much is a ride to the moon? any discounts?

macvillage.net · Oct 4, 2004, 04:44 PM

Originally posted by SimeyTheLimey:
The point isn't that Spaceship One is American. I'm just happy to see private enterprise making space travel more accessible. This is the way it should be. Spaceplanes are supposed to have "Pan-Am" painted on the side.

Next up: the flying cars I was promised as a kid.

Indeed!

Though I'm curious how many parts have components made overseas. I'd bet signifigant parts have overseas origin.

Millennium · Oct 4, 2004, 04:45 PM

Congrats to the team. Yet another giant leap for mankind. Not to say that we should dismantle NASA just yet, but this is an important step towards the day when private space travel is possible.

Lancer409 · Oct 4, 2004, 06:06 PM

Originally posted by djohnson:
Pretty cool!

Now where are the warp engines?

in the shop for repairs ... the left nacelle was venting ... they gotta patch it up

iREZ · Oct 4, 2004, 07:16 PM

240,000 miles to the moon? Damn I only have enough frequent flyer miles for one way.

Oct 4, 2004, 08:28 PM

Originally posted by turtle777:
Are you always that humor impaired ?
Did you notice that ---> ?

-t

Perhaps you should have put the

instead?