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06:47 pm
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"spaceshipone wins $10 million x prize"
the headline says it all。*bounceperk*。 ^_^
that page also links to an excellent mixed slideshow， animation and "how it works" explanation。
you can see more pictures and a video at the entries i made during the first flight： june 21st and june 22nd。
let affordable private space flight begin：
Virgin Galactic is a company established by Richard Branson's Virgin Group to undertake the challenge of developing space tourism for everybody.
Virgin Galactic will own and operate privately built spaceships, modelled on the history-making SpaceShipOne craft. These spaceships will allow affordable sub-orbital space tourism for the first time in our history.
。。。as the money starts to pour in。
Current Mood:  tired
Current Music: Jimmy Nail - Ain't No Doubt
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06:48 pm
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x-prize attempts, announcements and crashes
scaled composites have officially announced the date for their first of two flights needed to get the x-prize: september 29th. they must make two successful flights within a fortnight.
a couple of days later, a different team put in their date: october 2nd, although they were still half a million dollars short: the rules require the teams to give 60 days notice. the da vinci launch uses the world's largest helium balloon to raise their rocket before launch. not pretty like spaceshipone, but certainly "innovative".
sensible bets are on spaceshipone to get the prize, but something could go wrong. not that it matters: the point of the prize is to stimulate competition and a serious private space industry. given the twenty registered teams and stated intents from most to try for space tourism whether they win or not, i'd say it is being singularly successful.
in other news, two other teams have crashed and burnt, virtually wiping out their chances of winning the prize that expires at the end of this year. however, just to illustrate the success of the prize at achieving its purpose, eric meier of the space transport corporation responded to his team's failure thus:
There's a much bigger prize out there than the $10 million - space tourism. Humanity always has and always will rise to challenges such as travelling in space.
the other failed rocket was designed by john carmack of doom fame. the geeks are out in force. :-)
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: nippy tv
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05:22 pm
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spaceshipone launch photos
some nice photos from the spaceshipone launch in june.
[link from limbic]
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: nippy tv
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07:44 pm
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spaceshipone update 16
nobody in their right mind gives any product made by real media access to the internet without a compelling reason. their products are at the very least intrusive - constantly trying to phone home and directing you to places you haven't asked to be directed to - quite probably they are spyware.
with that in mind, and as per the promise i gave with the original link, i have created an alternative: an mpeg file. approximately half the size (1.2MB), but the quality doesn't seem that much worse. to view it, right click the link (below) and click "save link as". save it somewhere on your computer, then view it in your favourite video viewing program. windows users will probably want to use windows media player.
the link.
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights
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08:11 am
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spaceshipone update 15
video of the rocket going up. you need realplayer to view this.. i'm working on fixing that problem, but i have to go to work first..
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Kandi - Don't Think I'm Not
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08:00 am
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spaceshipone update 14
i've just notice that i haven't yet put up a proper shot of the spaceship itself! in rectification [click for the full-sized version]:
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Tom Jones & Mousse T - Sexbomb
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07:45 am
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spaceshipone update 13
two more photos. again hosted at my place for speed reasons. again click to see the full-sized version.
the heroes of the pieces... from left to right, paul allen who paid for it, burt rutan who designed it and mike melville who flew it.
random trivia - rutan seem to pronounce his name as "rue-tan" rather than "rut-an" as i guessed.
the yanks also seem to say "mow-har-vee" not "mow-harve" when they pronounce "mohave".
three of scaled composites' aircraft. the white knight in front with spaceshipone slung below. observation and chase plane, starship, behind.
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Danzig - Going Down to Die
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07:34 am
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spaceshipone update 12
some people seem to be interested in the drop/separation sequence, so here's a few pictures from scaled's press photos. scaled's website is a bit slow at the moment, so i've put the images on my site. click the images to get the full-sized version.
here's spaceshipone hanging under the white knight:
the drop sequence:
spaceshipone starts its burn:
spaceshipone rockets off to the stars:
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Alicia Keys - Fallin'
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07:19 am
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spaceshipone update 11
apparently update #10 wasn't the last one. oh well.........
some people seem to be under the misapprehension that spaceshipone's lack of massive heat shielding will be a problem if they try for orbital flight, rather than 'just' suborbital. this is entirely false.
1. you have exactly the same amount of re-entry with suborbital flight as you do with orbital flight: suborbital is still beyond the earth's atmosphere (that's what makes it a space flight!), just not high enough or fast enough to circle the globe.
2. as rutan pointed out in the press conference afterwards, spaceshipone is the first winged vehicle into space. this apparently has huge safety advantages over the likes of the space shuttle when it comes to reentry, making heat shielding less of an issue [i'm currently asking scaled to put the transcript online so that i can give you his exact words, as i don't really understand the why!].
3. of course from orbital heights you fall from further up so, will have picked up more speed before you hit the atmosphere.. at least in a craft without wings!
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Shakespears Sister - Hello (Turn Your Radio On)
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12:17 am
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spaceshipone update 10 (last one)
and the first private space flight has arrived back home safely. mission accomplished. nasa, please start packing.
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: bbc video feed
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12:13 am
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spaceshipone update 9
61 year old private astronaut mike merville is now gliding gently back to the first private spaceport. spaceshipone is pretty, but methinks not as pretty as the white knight.
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: bbc news feed
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12:11 am
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spaceshipone update 8
it should be noted that the whole development, construction, testing, staff etc. for spaceshipone has so far has not finished using the original 20 million dollars stumped up by paul allen. a single space shuttle flight costs between 400 and 600 million dollars. spaceshipone is, apart from fuel, fully reusable. the space shuttle needs considerable refit after each flight - between 10 and 20 percent from estimates i've seen.
it is for this sort of reason that i dislike nasa so - they have managed to put back spaceflight decades through sheer incompetence. i rejoice because the days of their monopoly are fast ending.
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: bbc video feed
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12:03 am
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spaceshipone update 7
mike melville is now the first ever private astronaut, taking up a craft designed, funded and built entirely without government 'help'.
we don't need no gov-er-ment
we don't need no pork 'n' all.
time to relegate nasa to the history books. about bluddy time too! i know that that glorious day is a year or three away yet, but the writing is now well and truely engraved in the wall. rejoice and *poing*. ^_^
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: bbc video feed
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12:00 am
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spaceshipone update 6
the white knight is now coming back. pweeeettty. :-)
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Current Music: bbc video feed
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11:52 pm
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spaceshipone update 5
and it's off! bluddy fuck that's an impressive contrail! next disaster point to be overcome: reentry...
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: bbc video feed
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11:46 pm
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spaceshipone update 4
the bbc has a video feed.. annoying that i didn't find this when it could have been relevant.. at least it's a more reliable way to get commentary than pioneer radio.. about five minutes to separation..
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: bbc video feed
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11:30 pm
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spaceshipone update 3
the white knight is apparently on it's way up. it will take about an hour to get to 15km where spaceshipone will separate off and hopefully do its thing.
pioneer radio seems to be having trouble keeping on the air which means i missed most of it. :-/
i should be able to give more worthwhile info once i've seen the recording.. by which time everyone else will have done it anyway. maybe i should just go to bed. :-/
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Resonance104.4FM (Pioneer Radio: Pioneer Radui)
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11:00 pm
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spaceshipone update 2
had to switch server for the radio link. this page has alternates.. and there it goes again! :-/
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Pioneer Radio: Pioneer Radio
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10:42 pm
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spaceshipone update 1
apparently fox news is also intermittently showing events out at mohave spaceport. currently the white knight is rolling past to cheers. wish i could see it - the plane is gorgeous!
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Diamanda Galas - Erzulie (Pioneer Radio: Pioneer Radio )
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10:30 pm
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history in the making: spaceshipone is about to go...
for those with access to cnn, i'd recommend watching for the next hour or so. barring disaster, history is in the making...
A privately-developed rocket plane will launch into history on June 21 on a mission to become the world’s first commercial manned space vehicle. Investor and philanthropist Paul G. Allen and aviation legend Burt Rutan have teamed to create the program, which will attempt the first non-governmental flight to leave the earth’s atmosphere.
SpaceShipOne will rocket to 100 kilometers (62 miles) into sub-orbital space above the Mojave Civilian Aerospace Test Center, a commercial airport in the California desert. If successful, it will demonstrate that the space frontier is finally open to private enterprise. This event could be the breakthrough that will enable space access for future generations.
for those without, like myself, you can listen (no pictures) here using winamp or similar. i'm getting a friend to record cnn, so hopefully i'll be able to watch less live in a day or three.
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Diamanda Galas - Erzulie (Pioneer Radio: Pioneer Radio )
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