The stars are one step closer!
Oct. 4th, 2004 10:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gridloreSpaceShipOne wins $10 million X Prize
A stubby rocket named SpaceShipOne streaked into space and the history books Monday, flying higher than 62 miles for the second time in a week and capturing the $10 million Ansari X Prize.
The privately owned manned rocket left the Mojave Airport at dawn aboard a mother plane named White Knight that carried it to an altitude of 46,000 feet. From there it was launched on a half-hour flight that took it to an altitude of more than 62 miles for the second time in a week.
About an hour after it landed, X Prize founder Peter Diamandis announced that the altitude was official and that SpaceShipOne's team had claimed the prize by making two such flights within the required 14 days.
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I caught a program about this on Discovery last night. The absolute love that Burt Rutan and his crew have for flight and this project is what made it happen. The vehicles themselves are simply elegant. The White Knight carrier plane, and the space plane look like something off a 1940s Astounding cover.
In other news, Virgin has licensed the technology, and plans to offer suborbital flights by the end of the decade.
I'm going. Not "I want to go" or "Gee, it would be nice to go", but I am going into space. This is my new long-term survival goal. Once, before I die, I'm going to get into space and see black sky.
But first, a song..
Here's to Conestoga, Pegasus and Liberty
and all the rest who've joined us in the race
Oh we're proud of NASA's heroes, but we'd rather raise our glass
To the hard-nosed bloody bastards who will get us into space
A stubby rocket named SpaceShipOne streaked into space and the history books Monday, flying higher than 62 miles for the second time in a week and capturing the $10 million Ansari X Prize.
The privately owned manned rocket left the Mojave Airport at dawn aboard a mother plane named White Knight that carried it to an altitude of 46,000 feet. From there it was launched on a half-hour flight that took it to an altitude of more than 62 miles for the second time in a week.
About an hour after it landed, X Prize founder Peter Diamandis announced that the altitude was official and that SpaceShipOne's team had claimed the prize by making two such flights within the required 14 days.
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I caught a program about this on Discovery last night. The absolute love that Burt Rutan and his crew have for flight and this project is what made it happen. The vehicles themselves are simply elegant. The White Knight carrier plane, and the space plane look like something off a 1940s Astounding cover.
In other news, Virgin has licensed the technology, and plans to offer suborbital flights by the end of the decade.
I'm going. Not "I want to go" or "Gee, it would be nice to go", but I am going into space. This is my new long-term survival goal. Once, before I die, I'm going to get into space and see black sky.
But first, a song..
Here's to Conestoga, Pegasus and Liberty
and all the rest who've joined us in the race
Oh we're proud of NASA's heroes, but we'd rather raise our glass
To the hard-nosed bloody bastards who will get us into space
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no subject
Date: 4 Oct 2004 10:44 (UTC)no subject
Date: 4 Oct 2004 11:24 (UTC)and the White Knight is just too cool for words
no subject
Date: 5 Oct 2004 10:53 (UTC)