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SpaceShipOne wins $10 million prize with flight
The world's first privately funded manned spacecraft soared to the blackened frontiers of space for the second time in a week on Monday, setting a new altitude record and clinching a $10 million prize designed to spur commercial space travel. SpaceShipOne, a stubby, three-seat rocket plane, hurtled to a height of 367,442 feet (111,996 metres) surpassing its target altitude without the heart-stopping barrel rolls that vexed the craft's qualifying flight on Wednesday.
The triumphant flight, which took place on the anniversary of the 1957 Sputnik launch, also eclipsed the world altitude record for a fixed-wing aircraft, set in 1963 by the experimental X-15 rocket plane. "We are proud to announce that SpaceShipOne has made two flights to 100 kilometers (62 miles) and has won the Ansari X Prize," space enthusiast Peter Diamandis, founder of the X Prize competition, told reporters at Mojave airport. Thousands of spectators gathered beside the runway cheered as the craft glided back to the floor of California's desert for a textbook landing. Brian Binnie, the 51-year-old former US Navy pilot who was at the controls, emerged smiling from the craft's side hatch onto the tarmac, where he was met by his wife. Also present were aircraft designer Burt Rutan, Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen, who financed the venture at a cost of over $20 million, and British entrepreneur Richard Branson, who has licensed the SpaceShipOne design for a series of future commercial flights. Binnie said that as he became weightless he did pulled out a paper model of SpaceShipOne and let it free fall in the cockpit with him as he snapped pictures. "There's a freedom there and a sense of wonder that, I tell you what, you all need to experience," he said. The X Prize, aimed at encouraging the development of civilian space travel, was offered for the first team to fly three people, or the equivalent weight, to at least 62 miles (100 km) in altitude and do it again within two weeks. LAUGHING GAS AND RUBBER The carrier jet, White Knight, ferried SpaceShipOne to about 50,000 feet (15,000 metres) and then released it for its roughly 80-second rocket-fueled stab through the atmosphere. SpaceShipOne then arced back toward Earth in a long, spiraling glide. SpaceShipOne is powered by a hybrid fuel composed of nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas, and tire rubber -- a less volatile mix than the propellant used by NASA's space shuttle. Instead of heat shield tiles, the craft is equipped with a feathered wing system that prevents overheating by slowing its re-entry. Binnie became only the second civilian pilot to obtain his astronaut's wings. The first was Mike Melvill, who flew the first successful qualifying flight of SpaceShipOne on Wednesday that was marked by a series of unplanned vertical rolls. Rutan said the victory by his team, one of 26 that had competed for the X Prize, was just the start of developing "a manned tourism system ... that's at least a hundred times safer than anything that's ever flown man to space." Rutan said Monday's flight proved flawless after the team changed the launch trajectory and made other adjustments to avoid the 29 vertical rolls that marked last week's flight. Diamandis also announced a new competition -- the X Prize Cup -- offering awards for altitude, distance and speed records achieved by a new generation of civilian space ventures. He said the competition would get under way in 2006. Hotel mogul Robert Bigelow told Reuters that he would put up $25 million toward a $50 million prize for the first privately built, manned craft to reach orbital flight. Rutan said SpaceShipOne could still be used as a test plane in preparation for the launches planned by Branson's company, Virgin Galactic. Rutan and others have said their ultimate goal is to bring the cost of a space flight for passengers down to the price of a low-cost car. |
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