Burt Rutan - to fly tomorrow?

Bill White · 2003-12-16 19:43:05

It would be pretty cool if Rutan began his X-Prize flights on the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers flight.

jadeheart · 2003-12-16 20:06:36

I see from the article that SpaceDev is publicly traded... may be some value there at .99 a share. I wonder how much their future business relies on (aerospace maverick) Rutan's success?

How in the heck can you burn plexiglas in a rocket engine and have it be "environmentally safe?" I don't think I'd want to breathe that exhaust.

Bill White · 2003-12-17 15:02:53

SpaceShip One broke the sound barrier today.

Cool enough.

clark · 2003-12-17 15:23:29

So, should we get a pool going on when Rutan is going to go for it?

jadeheart · 2003-12-17 15:59:34

i wonder how close any of the other x-prize contenders are? rutan gets almost all of the coverage, but is this because he is in the lead or because he has a history of coverage from other efforts?

another question: spaceship one is designed for suborbital operations. technologically, how far is this from being able to do LEO? greater speed for LEO, which means more re-entry heat to deal with. will this be a problem for Scaled Composites?

Mad Grad Student · 2003-12-17 16:31:21

X-Prize

This site has all the information you need to know about the X-Prize. Surprisingly, several other companies are getting close to their flights, too, but none as close as Scaled Composites. Canadian Arrow and Starchaser Industries have both had very succesful runs of their engines for the full duration necessary. I didn't know that Scaled had done this until I clicked that link, thanks, Bill.

Unfortunately, Space Ship One will top out very far from orbit. Its maximum speed will be about mach 4, and it will barely touch space before falling back at an altitude of 62 miles. It would take a lot of work to scale that up to an orbital system and still keep the cost down, but a company like Scaled Composites could do it. We are talking about the same guys that built the VariEze, Voyager, and Global Flyer here.

Shaun Barrett · 2003-12-17 19:42:44

Thanks guys for these updates!

That Bert Rutan fella should be made President! I think he and his team are absolutely top-notch people and I can't adequately express my admiration for their work.
I find it all very exciting and I even read out the description of the flight to my wife, something I don't do very often! She's not heavily into space exploration but there are some things I believe she simply has to know about ... and this was definitely one of them!!

I don't think we should underestimate Mr Rutan for one minute. Once he's accomplished the X-Prize requirements (whether he does it first or not), I wouldn't put it past him by any means to carry on with his research and get a craft into orbit.
This man still has 'the right stuff', he thinks the way American scientists used to think, and I don't believe there are any limits to what that kind of thinking can achieve.

GO SPACESHIP ONE !!!

Rxke · 2003-12-18 13:15:18

Some pics of SSO's first powered flight and spectacular landing (click to enlarge)
mojavebooks.com

Josh Cryer · 2004-05-13 21:35:02

Scaled Composites.

Enough said.

Rxke · 2004-05-14 11:28:15

i prefer the other pic, with the Earth in the background, you actually see the upper atmosphere, and it's curvature (the latter i am seriously thinking is because they used some kind of fish-eye lens, though...)
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/05/1 … ml]article with pic

Mad Grad Student · 2004-05-14 22:48:38

w00t.

Go Scaled Composites! Right now I'd wager that they'll make three more powered flights before the X-Prize attempt. They'll make one to 55 miles, just 7 short of X-Prize maybe in one month (Let's assume June 15), and then the other two will be to the same altitude, but within five days of each other, to show rapid turnaround time. Those flights should be complete by July 4, and let's say that they inform the Ansari X-Prize board about a launhch attempt. The official rules say that you have to do this 30 days before the actual attempt, so the first X-Prize flight will be done on August 4. By August 11, 2004, the X-Prize will be won with 100 days to spare. Big party at Mojave Airport.

That's my bet, August 11 for the X-Prize taking, right now I doubt that anyone else can win baring an SC accident, but that's certainly possible, though unlikely. Hopefully we'll see two other teams fly by the end of the year, though. http://davinciproject.com]The Da Vinci Project has a launch licence and has said that they can fly by the end of summer. http://www.canadianarrow.com]Canadian Arrow has a completed vehcile and will start unmanned tests in August. By December, they should be flying people to X-Prize altitude. http://www.starchaser.co.uk]Starchaser Industries is a rock-solid company, and has great hardware, but I don't know if they can pull off a flight this year. They're pretty reclusive, so either they have a near-working vehcile and just don't tell anyone about it (Plausible, they didn't announce a 2 minute test of their main engines untill four months after it happened) or they're behind schedule.

Burt Rutan was right, "The future's looking up, way up!"

In fact, the future's so bright, I gotta wear shades.

Rxke · 2004-05-15 01:20:49

Mad Grad, "the future's so bright i gotta wear shades", is that a Timbuk3 quote or is that a common English/American saying?

For the attemt, contenders have to file an announcemennt 30 days prior, and i've read comments from observers thinking it'll actually be the next flight, 'cause Scaled posted on their site to 'watch this space' for more announcements soon...
Though i think that would be *very* fast, i guess your estimate might turn out more realistic.

Mad Grad Student · 2004-05-18 22:30:28

Mad Grad, "the future's so bright i gotta wear shades", is that a Timbuk3 quote or is that a common English/American saying?
For the attemt, contenders have to file an announcemennt 30 days prior, and i've read comments from observers thinking it'll actually be the next flight, 'cause Scaled posted on their site to 'watch this space' for more announcements soon...
Though i think that would be *very* fast, i guess your estimate might turn out more realistic.

That would be the former, I think. I don't know, I overheard the song during one of the "Revenge of the Nerds" movies, but I'm not very knowledgable about 80s music.

I don't think that Scaled's next flight will be into space. There was speculation that the December 17th flight would be to X-Prize altitude, instead it was the first powered flight, peaking at aobut 68,000 feet. The fact of the matter is that Scaled Composites' next move is nearly impossible to predict, so I always try to err on the side of pessimism. Tomorrow they could fly into space, but they won't, Burt isn't confident enough in the system yet. Don't believe any rumors you hear about SS1 flights, SC never releases any info about upcoming flights until they've already occured.

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#1 2003-12-16 19:43:05

Re: Burt Rutan - to fly tomorrow?

#2 2003-12-16 20:06:36

Re: Burt Rutan - to fly tomorrow?

#3 2003-12-17 15:02:53

Re: Burt Rutan - to fly tomorrow?

#4 2003-12-17 15:23:29

Re: Burt Rutan - to fly tomorrow?

#5 2003-12-17 15:59:34

Re: Burt Rutan - to fly tomorrow?

#6 2003-12-17 16:31:21

Re: Burt Rutan - to fly tomorrow?

#7 2003-12-17 19:42:44

Re: Burt Rutan - to fly tomorrow?

#8 2003-12-18 13:15:18

Re: Burt Rutan - to fly tomorrow?

#9 2004-05-13 21:35:02

Re: Burt Rutan - to fly tomorrow?

#10 2004-05-14 11:28:15

Re: Burt Rutan - to fly tomorrow?

#11 2004-05-14 22:48:38

Re: Burt Rutan - to fly tomorrow?

#12 2004-05-15 01:20:49

Re: Burt Rutan - to fly tomorrow?

#13 2004-05-18 22:30:28

Re: Burt Rutan - to fly tomorrow?

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