Space Ship One Launch

White Knight/Space Ship One launched approx. 1347Z (on MSNBC, CNBC, CNN, FNN
in US).



Jack

It's 11:00am and I just got home from the event. From a college student who
has been to countless airshows, flown in a P-51 and a B-25, seen Chuck
Yeager break the sound barrier at Edwards, seen the space shuttle land, and
flown that wonderful first solo flight, I can say that this was just about
the greatest thing I've ever seen. This event filled me with many emotions -
one of the greatest of these is a desire to push myself at school and truly
earn my aerospace engineering degree. When the crowd finally spotted the
aircraft way off southeast (almost directly into the sun....), and a bright
new contrail appeared in the sky, a cheer broke out that was simply
inspirational. More cheers broke out 3-4 minutes later when that distinctive
sonic boom rattled the desert and a craft appeared directly above, slowly
looping down to a warmly greeted landing.

Today was a day I'll never forget. Definitely a high point in my life. I
don't know how the pictures/video turned out, but if it's any good and
there's interest, I'll see what I can upload. But there is simply no
substitute for being there....


-Tony
Student Pilot


"Jack" wrote
White Knight/Space Ship One launched approx. 1347Z (on MSNBC, CNBC, CNN,
FNN
in US).



Jack

wrote in :

It's 11:00am and I just got home from the event. From a college
student who has been to countless airshows, flown in a P-51 and a
B-25, seen Chuck Yeager break the sound barrier at Edwards, seen the
space shuttle land, and flown that wonderful first solo flight, I can
say that this was just about the greatest thing I've ever seen. This
event filled me with many emotions - one of the greatest of these is a
desire to push myself at school and truly earn my aerospace
engineering degree. When the crowd finally spotted the aircraft way
off southeast (almost directly into the sun....), and a bright new
contrail appeared in the sky, a cheer broke out that was simply
inspirational. More cheers broke out 3-4 minutes later when that
distinctive sonic boom rattled the desert and a craft appeared
directly above, slowly looping down to a warmly greeted landing.

Today was a day I'll never forget. Definitely a high point in my life.
I don't know how the pictures/video turned out, but if it's any good
and there's interest, I'll see what I can upload. But there is simply
no substitute for being there....


-Tony
Student Pilot


"Jack" wrote
White Knight/Space Ship One launched approx. 1347Z (on MSNBC, CNBC,
CNN,
FNN
in US).



Jack





I lived on the west coast back in the 80's and was able to go up to
Edwards to see the first shuttle landing there. It too was a
unforgetable experience and I just wish I had been able to make it out
for this one.

Say, did the White Knight, or SS1, land first?

How long between the landings?

SS1 landed first- WK did a flyby and a nice break over the runway before
landing about 10 minutes later.

--
Jim Atkins
Twentynine Palms, CA USA

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.
Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.
-Groucho Marx

"Jim Atkins" wrote in message
...
SS1 landed first- WK did a flyby and a nice break over the runway before
landing about 10 minutes later.

Any report of this flight on the net?

and, what kind of aircraft is the White Knight?

In article
,
"Neil Gerace" wrote:

"Jim Atkins" wrote in message
...
SS1 landed first- WK did a flyby and a nice break over the runway before
landing about 10 minutes later.

Any report of this flight on the net?

Only from every newspaper on the planet with a web site.


and, what kind of aircraft is the White Knight?

It's a Rutan "White Knight", I guess. A one of a kind, developed
specially for this purpose. Presumably it benefitted from earlier
experience with Proteus, though it is configured entirely differently.


It was a great event to see, even if I had to take 12 hour flight across
the Pacific and back -- and sleep in the XCOR hangar -- in order to be
there.

-- Bruce

Indeed a great day.

Especially nice the flight ended as a glider. Can
only imagine the satisfaction felt by the pilot after
returning from space to end the flight with some good
old stick and rudder, engine-less spot landing. Can
there be a better way to bring it home? I think not.

Hard to believe that the entire program cost about the same as Dennis Tito
paid for his ride.

Chalk up one for the 'mature' gang too. The pilot was 60, for once
'experience' was the name of the game.

I'd want a word with scaled composites about the L/D if it was my money
though, 100km high 'aerotow' and only a 45 minute sledge ride back down.

:-)

Ian

John Jones wrote:
Indeed a great day.

Especially nice the flight ended as a glider. Can
only imagine the satisfaction felt by the pilot after
returning from space to end the flight with some good
old stick and rudder, engine-less spot landing. Can
there be a better way to bring it home? I think not.

It is registered as a glider, it appears (N328KF), but I couldn't find a
Mike Melville with a glider rating in the pilot certificate database,
and the only Melville with a glider rating is in Connecticut. Do you
suppose he got a waiver? At least he wouldn't need a self-launch
endorsement, since it's launched by an airplane instead of it's own engine.


--
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA