'Anomalies' in first private spaceflight revealed

[PfcHammer]

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996052

'Anomalies' in first private spaceflight revealed
12:27 22 June 04
NewScientist.com news service

The flight of the first private astronaut was not as perfect as it first appeared – a number of glitches occurred during the flight, some potentially catastrophic.

The revelations were made by Burt Rutan, designer of SpaceShipOne, which on Monday became the world's first privately funded craft to enter space. Until the team fully understands exactly what went wrong during the flight, he said, they will not go ahead with the pair of flights needed to claim the $10 million Ansari X-Prize.

Luckily, the glitches did not prevent a successful flight. But pilot Mike Melvill said that a partial failure of the system controlling the spacecraft's orientation could have been disastrous if it had occurred just slightly earlier in the flight,.

The problem struck at the end of the rocket engine's firing time of about 70 seconds, just as Melvill reached space. "As I came out of the atmosphere I no longer had any attitude control," Melvill told New Scientist and other reporters. "If that had happened earlier, I would never have made it and you all would be looking sad right now."

[daleo]

1. I read in today's paper, he was "alone" in the ship

The rules say that the weight equivalent of three people must be carried into space. So, the flight didn't qualify anyway. From my memory of the mathematics of payload to fuel requirements, tripling the payload takes a heck of a lot more fuel. So, I wonder if his current design could handle the extra weight. I don't think so, unless he actually flew that mission wish significantly under a full fuel load.

I think perhaps he felt some other group was coming close to claiming the prize, so he decided to do the first flight disregarding the rules. His backer if hugely rich, so the money probably doesn't matter as much as the bragging rights of being first, even if the "first" wasn't quite within the rules of this contest.

[arcos]

3. they have always been the closest to the prize...

All the other teams admit this... and the idea was not to make this flight would qualify... this was the first manned test before making the 2 trips that would make them the winners.

[SidDithers]

4. You're correct...

From the Ansari press release:

Scaled Composite’s SpaceShipOne flight on June 21st was not a qualifying ANSARI X PRIZE flight because it only carried the one pilot, without the weight equivalent of two other individuals. This flight was a test flight in preparation for competition flight attempts later this year.

link here: (note, it's an MS doc)
http://www.xprize.org/papers/xprize_pr_062204.doc

Sid

[Media_Lies_Daily]

6. As far as I know, no other group has even flown yet....

...Rutan's group has been taking the correct steps to get into space from the word "go". They've been VERY careful every step of the way, which is why they've flown with only one person in SpaceShipOne for the first few flights. In fact, they kept their program secret for the first two years.

Additionally, I doubt seriously if they miscalculated on the amount of fuel they needed to get SpaceShipOne and one human into space. Rutan is MUCH too careful a pilot and plane-designer to do that.

[daleo]

9. There is a Canadian group that claims it is close

Canadian Arrow X prize group claims they will give it a go this year. I don't know how close they really are.

It is an interesting competition. The biggest problem right now that I can see is the same one that NASA faces with the space shuttle. It is neat to go into near earth orbit, but what exactly do you do once you are there? Most of the commercial applications that were touted years ago (crystals in micro-gravity, purer drugs, etc.) have not really panned out. One shot rockets are still cheaper for satellite launches. Tourism for the rich can only take you so far.

One of the big problems for Concorde was that there was just a limited market of people willing to pay the money to shave a few hours off the flight time between London and New York. It seems likely that this would be even more true for commercial sub-orbital or orbital flight, given the higher costs and risks.

I like space science, especially deep space exploration. I don't know how much of a commercial proposition space flight will ever be, though. I suppose there is always the military.

[LastDemocratInSC]

7. This was not the flight to win the X-Prize but he did earn astronaut wings

Now that the testing of SpaceShipOne has been successfully completed (with a few glitches) the Rutan team will notify the X-Prize organization of their intent to make a qualifying flight and the organization will, in turn, define the dates between which the flights must be made. This notification/response process will take a week or so.

Mike Melville did earn his commercial astronaut wings which are awarded to any person who, whether by rocket, rocket-plane, or a lawn-chair with helium balloons attached, has the gumption to get above the altitude of 100 KMs. Because of the control problems cited in the article, Melville made it above 100 KM with just a few hundred feet to spare. They were planning for 68 miles but made it to 62 by a whisker, but that's good enough for the wings.

SpaceShipOne won't have problems getting 3 persons above 100 KM. The rubber compound / nitrous oxide rocket engine has plenty of power. The Rutan team has been very cautious in how hard they push the engine but it has plenty of go in it.

And, yes, the story of Lawn Chair Larry is true:

http://www.odysseyballoons.com/pelicans/lawnchair.html

[sam sarrha]

2. I saw the rocket turn wings vertical for a bit and then back horizontal i

thought it strange to flash a photo op, going that fast.. must have been when he lost control.

[Dogmudgeon]

5. They made history anyway

They got a privately funded, privately built, crewed craft to 100 km and back again.

The "private" part was funded by Paul Allen, who founded Microsoft with Bill Gates lo these many years ago.

The X Prize is a step above Melvill's flight -- and the first such orbital flight will be a step above even that.

I'm sure it won't be a perfectly smooth progression, and there was certainly a significant chance that Melvill would have come back to the Earth dead.

So far so good. Next on the agenda ...

--bkl

[Octafish]

8. Melvill must be one heckuva pilot. I mean, ASTRONAUT!

The first private astronaut. It's got a nice ring to it...