private craft in space
 

this is pretty cool (I would have figured PF would have posted about this :))...

Looks like Burt Rutan managed to get something into space after all! Talk about a guy that does not know the meaning of "no."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,123259,00.html

I heard about this on the radio yesterday. Very interesting stuff going on!

MilkToast,

It is a major development.

It is a demonstration, not only of technical prowess, but also that the monopoly provider NASA need no longer be assumed to have the only answer.

This was only a test flight.

To get the X-Prize, they have to send a full passenger load

up twice in a fortnight.

The pilot was alone this time.

Oldfart,

Well, sort of…

Rule number three of the X PRIZE states that the vehicle must be flown twice within a 14-day period. Each flight must carry at least one person, to minimum altitude of 100 km (62 miles). The flight vehicle must be built with the capacity to carry a minimum of 3 adults.

http://www.xprize.org/teams/guidelines.html

The design of SpaceShipOne is compliant with that requirement, but as there was only the pilot on the June 21 flight, it will have had to have carried equivalent ballast to qualify.

http://www.scaled.com/projects/tier...ce_ship_one.htm

It may have qualified, but perhaps not.

I'm saving up my pennies to get PF on a flight. It costs extra to get him the ejector seat, though.

Steph,

It seems you’ll have a bit more time, as Mr. Rutan said SpaceShipOne is grounded until his team figures out why the flight control system failed. The pilot had to use a back-up system to control the vehicle.

Seems like you could have a telethon or something :p

or just generous contributions to the "cause" :D

This really is very cool. It will hopefully push us back into a space race. Outer space is the way we need to go and we will never get there if it is left to NASA. I'm not knocking NASA it's just that they don't get as much money as they really need. IMO