These guys are going to win the X-Prize

(Anyone els clock how badly space.com is designed)

I'm not really convinced that commericial ventures can really tackle the complexity and cost of space travel. It's great to see them trying though. This Rutan venture looks more like an extremely high altitude plane. This is a step in the right direction, as it will be safer and cheaper to launch tourists. I think the costs and risks of space flight are too great right now, that trying to pull off space flight without the backing of a nation-state is pretty iffy.

I know that the Chinese are ramping up their space program pretty fast, and I heard the EU is looking for some space prestige. Maybe this competition will heat up a new space race. The US has gotten pretty comfortable with it's space domination, and any threat to this domination (especially by China) will have to be answered. The US has a huge military/communication advantage because of our orbital presence. And it will do whatever necessary to maintain this advantage.

RIght now spaceflight is in this grey area much like oceanic exploration was in the 16th century - back then, nation-states were the the only entities that could muster the resources to pull it off - however private organizations did eventually field their own expeditions once the potential pay off made the initial risk worth it.

I think the costs and risks of space flight are too great right now, that trying to pull off space flight without the backing of a nation-state is pretty iffy

I think the risks of depending upon the government(s) for space access are far greater than the actual technical requirements.

An interesting thought: Do private space companies need to get insurance for a space tourist's death liablity claims? Nickalicious to thread.

Well of course! Technically (and no matter how NASA tries to spin it) it's incredibily difficult to justify any bottom-line excuse for sending people into space. Don't forget that we're all used to an inefficient model of spaceflight that 50 years old - big honking liquid fueled rockets built by enormous corporate bureaucracies with government contracts.

I don't think any private company is going to pull anything off for at least another 50 years unfortunately.

Bet you that someone will. Hell, if Bill Gates reached into his petty cash drawer we'd have one already.

Do private space companies need to get insurance for a space tourist's death liablity claims?

I seem to recall that Dennis Tito signed the Mother Of All Waivers for his Soyuz ride. I'm sure that the space tourism companies will have similar contracts.

Um - for space news, I like Space Ref, myself - http://www.spaceref.com - more so than Space Daily OR Space.com, for that matter. And the official NASA sites just bug the heck out of me, all of that phony "We're the best" stuff.

About the X-Prize - I think it's a brilliant concept. And I do think it's the only way to get space access opened for those of us who can't get past the NASA space-flight requirements and who aren't willing to go the way of Tito and Shuttleworth. (Besides, the Russians have signed-off on the tourism stuff, at least while the shuttle's are stuck in their hangars.)

So, um, thanks for thinking of me and stuff *smile*

http://www.mojaveairport.com/images/Rutan/WIND-SPACE-4.jpg

I feel like I'm living in the future finally.

Photo sequence here.

With pilot Mike Melvill at the controls — following release from the White Knight turbojet-powered launch aircraft high above the Mojave, California desert — SpaceShipOne punched through the sky today boosted by a hybrid propellant rocket motor. According to sources who witnessed the flight, SpaceShipOne appears to have reached an altitude of a little over 200,000 feet.

http://images.usatoday.com/tech/_photos/2004/05-13-spaceshipone-main.jpg

The public is invited. Of course I'm going.

I'm much more excited about this then I reasonably should be. I love the fact that the guy behind it is batshit crazy and has enormous sideburns. More mad geniuses in space, pls.

Hi all, The folks at MHV are continuing to get the various sites ready for the influx of people, who seem to already be arriving. Several RVs drove slowly down the flightline.

The White Knight, which was doing a number of touch and goes day before yesterday, was out doing maintenance runs today.

Yesterday's update generated a couple of questions:

1 -- Can a person sleep in their car on the airport overnight Sunday night? No. The general parking area won't open till 3am. Only self-contained RVs will be allowed on the airport overnight. There is a large open lot across Hwy 58 from where big-rig trucks usually overnight, and that might be an option. I do understand, however, that a number of people plan on lining up on the shoulder of 58 around midnight. Don't know if they'll get chased away or not. There's a CHP (California Highway Patrol, for you out-of-staters) station adjacent to the airport, so they may be out in force.

2 -- Is there any European live broadcasts planned? I've no clue. AFAIK, there are a bunch of satellite trucks scheduled to start arriving on Saturday, no idea who they might be from. I have not heard of anyone planning a live webcast, but you might want to check at space.com to see if they're doing anything...I know some of their folks will be here.

One caution to those planning on being here but aren't used to life in the desert: BRING LOTS OF WATER! Even at 7am, it's getting quite warm now, and you will get dehydrated much faster than you'll realize. There will be vendors selling water, but count on it being pricey. Our rule of thumb out here: if you're not peeing every couple of hours, you're not drinking enough.

Other news: I haven't received confirmation yet, but my understanding was that the FAA was supposed to issue the airport the first ever civilian spaceport license today. There's going to be about a 2 hour gap between the flight and the offical press conference, and they are tentatively planning to do a formal presentation of the license during that time, and it should be within view of the public viewing area.

The public viewing area is set up southeast of the new Taxiway Bravo (map is available at mojaveairport.com ), at the approach end of Rwy 30, so everyone will get an excellent view of the landing.

When Burt came in for lunch at the Voyager Cafe yesterday, he was all grins...looks like he's really having a lot of fun with this. Five days and counting!

Alan

Host David Livingston says, "
Listen to the live webcast here. An additional streaming site has been provided Space Show listeners by Jeff Birk at Pioneer Radio in the UK, here. After the live broadcast, the report will be archived TheSpaceShow.com, and it will be streamed for ongoing play at Live365.com."

Not following here... The X-Prize requires two flights as specified in the rules.

Which is what I said "(or one + payload)" upthread. This morning's flight did not carry a payload.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002000209_rocket09m.html.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2004/08/08/2002000037.jpg

I would name this airline 'Trans-Atmospheric'.

Scaled cashes in... I'm still patiently waiting on SS2.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Northrop Grumman Corp. has agreed to buy the company that built the first private manned rocket to reach space, it was announced Friday. Northrop earlier this month agreed to increase its stake in Mojave, Calif.-based Scaled Composites LLC from 40 percent to 100 percent, said company spokesman Dan McClain.

Northrop, a major defense contractor, would not disclose the value of the deal, which still needs regulatory approval.

"We went from a partial owner to the owner of the company," McClain said.

Northrop and Scaled said the new ownership would not affect Scaled's operations. Maverick aerospace designer Burt Rutan will remain at the helm of Scaled and the management team will remain intact, McClain said.

SpaceX finally makes orbit

HAWTHORNE, CA – September 28, 2008 – Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) announces that Flight 4 of the Falcon 1 launch vehicle has successfully launched and achieved Earth orbit. With this key milestone, Falcon 1 becomes the first privately developed liquid fuel rocket to orbit the Earth.

"This is a great day for SpaceX and the culmination of an enormous amount of work by a great team," said Elon Musk, CEO and CTO of SpaceX. "The data shows we achieved a super precise orbit insertion—middle of the bull's-eye — and then went on to coast and restart the second stage, which was icing on the cake."

awesome

Thread bump to mark the retirement of Burt Rutan

Launching Of Rocket By SpaceX Is Aborted

The rocket’s nine engines had ignited, but computers detected a discrepancy and shut them down. The next launching attempt will be, at the earliest, on Tuesday at 3:44 a.m., NASA officials said.

:-(

OTOH "safety mechanism does what it's supposed to"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18118136

"The engine controller noted high chamber pressure in engine five; software did what it was supposed to do - aborted engine five, and then we went through the remaining engine shut-down"

by the way, is there a better thread for this? i mean, this whole First Commercial Spacecraft to Dock with a Space Station thing is pretty momentous and i kind of want to hear what ilxors think (and add in my worthless two cents as well)

(my worthless two cents involve a ridiculous comparison to christopher columbus and fingerbiting agony that space will only be for rich people)

Don't wanna be a downer here, and don't get me wrong I fucking love space, but I kinda wonder what is the point? This final frontier isn't anything like Columbus' new world in terms of resources or accessibility. I'm all for long term thinking but we need to solve our resource and energy problems on earth here and now. Burning a few extra millions of gallons of oil in order to give some millionaire playboys a fantastic view, and maybe just maybe create a tiny outpost on a lump of sterile dusty rock, doesn't really seem like a worthwhile endeavour.

Virgin Galactic spaceship reaches new heights in supersonic flight

Well shit...

http://media2.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2014_44/745886/141031-virgin-galactic-crash-1648_67fc1df5373d6c069d1e11e66317e326.nbcnews-fp-1200-600.jpg

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/virgin-voyage/virgin-galactics-spaceshiptwo-crashes-1-dead-1-injured-n238376

Virigin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane exploded and crashed during a test flight on Friday, killing one crew member and seriously injuring another, authorities said.

The explosion scattered debris across a two-mile swath of the desert floor outside Mojave, California, and came after the plane was released from its WhiteKnightTwo carrier airplane. SpaceShipTwo was testing its rocket engine in flight for the first time in more than nine months.

"During the test, the vehicle suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of the vehicle," Virgin Galactic said in a statement. "The WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft landed safely. Our first concern is the status of the pilots."

Jesse Borne, an officer at the California Highway Patrol, told NBC News that there was one fatality and one major injury.

The flight originated from the Mojave Air and Space Port, about 95 miles (150 kilometers) north of Los Angeles. The Federal Aviation Administration said two crew members were aboard SpaceShipTwo — which is consistent with the standard practice of having two test pilots who are equipped with parachutes. The pilots have not yet been identified.

Photographer Ken Brown, who was covering the test flight, told NBC News that he saw an explosion high in the air and later came upon SpaceShipTwo debris scattered across a small area of the desert. The Mojave airport's director, Stuart Witt, said the craft crashed north of Mojave. He deferred further comment pending a news conference that is scheduled for 2 p.m. PT (5 p.m. ET).

Keith Holloway, a Washington-based spokesman for the National Transportation and Safety Board, said "we are in the process of collecting information." The FAA said it was also investigating the incident.