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.

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.

Just got back from Mojave (about 150 mi away, roughly) and the first
suborbital flight of Spaceshipone. Somebody needs to do a 1/32 scale resin
of that baby- it's fairly small. Got to see my first Alpha Jet, too. They
are using an ex-Luftwaffe one as a camera ship for Discovery channel. The
carrier plane, White Knight, looks like a P-38 on hallucinogens. Totally
cool. Also along were an Extra 300 and a Beech Starship as chase planes.

The mated WK/SS1 took off and did circles around the area to get altitude
for about 50 minutes before drop. We were able to see them for quite a while
thanks to contrails. Just before drop the pair came at us from out of the
ease, just below the rising sun. We could see the smoke trail from the
rocket engine heading apparently straight up next to the sun and then at
burnout, the tiny spacecraft was lost to view. The local radio station was
broadcasting the radio from the tower, so we could hear when Mike Melville
was making position and altitude callouts. As the ship descended, we could
see the chase ships converging on his position. The formation circled the
field as they descended for landing. On the last turn round, the ship lined
up on the runway and touched down just north of our viewing area.

People were going nuts yelling and cheering when the rocket ignited and you
could see the trail shooting straight up out of the sun. When the sonic boom
filtered down to us there was a wave of cheering from the approximately
50,000 on hand. Now I know how it felt to watch Yeager or Shepard or Glenn.
On the way home, I also realized that that was the first time in my life I
had seen a formation of all four ways (yes, I know I'm forgetting electric,
but don't spoil the poetry of the moment) to power an aircraft- rocket, jet,
turboprop, and piston. Totally unforgettable.


--
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

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

Nice write up. A correction: Not Glenn and Shephard.

Scott Crossfield, Joe Walker, Bob White, Joe Engle, Neil Armstrong, Pete
Knight, Bill Dana, Milt Thompson, Mike Adams, Pete Peterson, Jack Knight,
Bob Rushworth in 199 flights of the X-15.

While Glenn and Shephard are plenty brave men for their rocket rides, that
old man today (63 and as old as my older brother) brought it in and landed
by hand using his eyes and brains to put it on the numbers.

It was a wonder to behold. Next time, though, I want to see if fromt he side
instead of looking straight up so I can get a sense of the trajectory.

Glenn and Shepard in the sense of seeing a real first- not to take away from
the X-15 guys- in my opinion Crossfield deserved a Medal of Freedom just for
staying cool during that engine test that blew the back half of the vehicle
to shreds. Did you hear that Pete Knight just passed away? He was a
legislator in Sacramento.

--
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

I wonder what kind of flight plan he filed? Did he have to cancel when
he exceeded FL600? And pick up an IFR flight plan prior to descending
below 60,000ft?

Or maybe they just had one hell of a wave window!

Kirk

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