SpaceShipOne second flight today

SteveC

SteveC

"Laconic"
Staff member
X Prize

Dark Sky flight today!

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The X PRIZE has just received official notice from Burt Rutan that SpaceShipOne's second flight (X2) will take place Monday morning, October 4th. Expected flight timeline:
* Takeoff at 7am PT
* Ignition at 8am PT
* Landing at 8:30am PT
* Press Conference to announce official Altitude at 10:30am PT
The entire flight and press conference can be viewed LIVE at www.xprize.org on our global webcast.

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Hello Steve,

Cool! It'll make for a morning of interesting news. One of Rutan's competitors is supposed to launch later this week I believe. I don't recall the name, but I believe it's comprised of a balloon that ascends to 80,000 feet and releases a rocket.

Cheers,

JR
 
A balloon to 80,000 feet? Gah! That's going to be like watching the movie "Pearl Harbor" -- just get the damned thing OVER with!
 
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MOJAVE DESERT, California (CNN) -- SpaceShipOne climbed into space for the second time in a week to claim the $10 million Ansari X Prize.

X Prize officials said the privately funded craft reached 368,000 feet -- well into space -- Monday to win the $10 million prize.

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CNN coverage here.
 
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Space ShipOne and White Knight, featured a new paint job promoting Virgin Galactic, Branson's new venture, which recently announced a deal to license the SpaceShipOne technology for a fleet of commercial spacecraft.

Winning the X Prize with SpaceShipOne is only the beginning for Rutan.

"I have a hell of a lot bigger goal now (than NASA)," he said.

He is now determined to supply the craft for Virgin Galactic.

"I absolutely have to develop a space tourism system that is at least 100 times safer than anything that has flown man into space, and probably significantly more than that," Rutan said.

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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.

Branson expects it could fly 3,000 people within five years.

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Man! I would think the young guys on this board would be bouncing off the walls!?! Can't you guys see the possibilities for piloting commercial aircraft / spacecraft? Think about the doors that are opening today for the pilots of the next thirty years!

If I was 20 years younger I'd be camped on Rutan's doorstep, resume in hand. Or else I'd be thinking long and hard about what kind of experience and knowledge these commercial ventures are going to be looking for in pilot/astronauts, and plotting my steps for the next 10 years to be in a position to take advantage of this new technology and be one of the pilots of the next generation of vehicles.

Put your thinking caps on, guys, or you'll get left behind...
 
Growing up in the 1970's on a steady diet of Battlestar Galactica, Space: 1999, Star Wars, etc - it was exciting as hell to think about the future.

Hopefully, we can spin this up for the 'common guy' and get a lot more people interested in exploring space or at least science -- most kids think "LAX" is reality TV and know more about the rift between Hilliary Duff and Lindsey Lohan than know about the basics of F = M * A or that Canada is not really yellow and the US orange from space.

Maybe if we can get the average "Joe Bag-o-Donuts" excited about what happened today, the space program won't become another Concorde where it became such a upper-crust 'creme de la creme' item that no one besides the mega wealthy or diehard aerospace nerds gave a crap.

Branson getting involved might be a start, but I'm afraid he's more interested in the quirky publicity and maintaining his aire of eccentricity.
 
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Branson getting involved might be a start, but I'm afraid he's more interested in the quirky publicity and maintaining his aire of eccentricity.

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Branson is good at waving his own flag. As long as his efforts get things rolling in the right direction, though, I can put up with it....

Virgin Galactic


(sounds like the title of a 1960's B-movie space opera; maybe even MikeD style.)
 
If you think about by the time we are in the 50s, thinking you are 20 right know we might have space pilots, taking people into space.
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Branson getting involved might be a start, but I'm afraid he's more interested in the quirky publicity and maintaining his aire of eccentricity.

[/ QUOTE ] ...and we all know that space is not longer "virgin" territory!
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JR
 
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Branson getting involved might be a start, but I'm afraid he's more interested in the quirky publicity and maintaining his aire of eccentricity.

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You've got Branson for marketing. Paul Allen has been a big backer. Rutan building them. I think this operation has the right people.

The exciting part is it's free enterprise at work! That's what will open up space for real.
 
So basically like Flava-Flav being the 'hype man', ChuckD doing the rapping and Terminator-X doing all of the music/DJ stuff in Public Enemy?
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So basically like Flava-Flav being the 'hype man', ChuckD doing the rapping and Terminator-X doing all of the music/DJ stuff in Public Enemy?

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Doug, sadly that is quite a good analogy.
 
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So basically like Flava-Flav being the 'hype man', ChuckD doing the rapping and Terminator-X doing all of the music/DJ stuff in Public Enemy? <img src="http://forums.jetcareers.com/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

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Alright, you did that on purpose. I'm not even going to bother to google to find out who those people are. (They are people, right?)
 
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Absolutely!

Just using an example of an old rap band with three completely different people/personalities combining to for joint synergies.
 
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Just using an example of an old rap band with three completely different people/personalities combining to for joint synergies.

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Actually, Doug just likes them 'cause "911 is a Joke" is used in a Reno 911 commercial.....

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