spaceship one

Only in America wrote:

Yuppers..... You can just imagine all those NASA and public trough
government people watching the spaceship being towed back to the hanger
by a pickup truck with a couple of average joes sitting on the
tailgate.

I don't know as I'd call Paul Allen and Rutan average joes.

-- Charlie Sprinegr

A fellow on one of the email lists sent a note that

Mike will be on the Tonight Show - tonight.

NOW (finally) we might get a better story that the
silly superficial questions asked by the news media.

The news spots (all the news that's fit to print?)
basically asked, "how do you feel about it?" (entertainment)

Jay Leno, an entertainer, will get the news story out.

Odd how it works...


Richard

ANN Publisher Jim Campbell, flying just feet away from Scaled's
SpaceShipOne in a Beechcraft Starship chase plane, was the first to report
some indications of possible thermal or load damage on the aft portion of
the spacecraft, just in front of the rocket bell. --

Wow!!! Flying just "feet" away!!! Did Zoom get his space wings also???


Pianome

"Pianome" wrote in message news:Ng1Cc.89931$HG.26418@attbi_s53...
ANN Publisher Jim Campbell, flying just feet away from Scaled's
SpaceShipOne in a Beechcraft Starship chase plane, was the first to report
some indications of possible thermal or load damage on the aft portion of
the spacecraft, just in front of the rocket bell. --

Wow!!! Flying just "feet" away!!! Did Zoom get his space wings also???


Pianome

I was listening to the chase planes and I thought that the high
chase (the Alpha Jet) called that Space Ship 1 appeared to have some
damage. It was possible load or thermal damage,great trick for the
mooz to be in both planes at once. They had three chase planes the
Alpha Jet was the high chase,The Beech Starship was for medium
altitudes and a Extra 300 for low chase. Mooz probably logged time in
all three Monday.
I did see the nitwits by-line on a photo for Reuters in USA Today.
Bet that he fed them one of his lines of B.S. he has alot of them.

Frank

From: (Frank Hitlaw)
Date: 6/23/2004 2:01 AM Central Daylight Time
Message-id:

"Pianome" wrote in message
news:Ng1Cc.89931$HG.26418@attbi_s53...
ANN Publisher Jim Campbell, flying just feet away from Scaled's
SpaceShipOne in a Beechcraft Starship chase plane, was the first to report
some indications of possible thermal or load damage on the aft portion of
the spacecraft, just in front of the rocket bell. --

Wow!!! Flying just "feet" away!!! Did Zoom get his space wings also???


Pianome

I was listening to the chase planes and I thought that the high
chase (the Alpha Jet) called that Space Ship 1 appeared to have some
damage. It was possible load or thermal damage,great trick for the
mooz to be in both planes at once. They had three chase planes the
Alpha Jet was the high chase,The Beech Starship was for medium
altitudes and a Extra 300 for low chase. Mooz probably logged time in
all three Monday.
I did see the nitwits by-line on a photo for Reuters in USA Today.
Bet that he fed them one of his lines of B.S. he has alot of them.

Frank

The question I have, and I really should know better than to ask, was zoom
actually there at all? If so why?

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches...ss_040621.html

"Private Spaceship Encounters Glitches in Record-Setting Flight"


Betsy

bci wrote...

"Private Spaceship Encounters Glitches in
Record-Setting Flight"

Must've been hard to close the cabin door
with b*lls that big. g

Dave 'tight fit' Hyde

"Pianome" wrote in message news:Ng1Cc.89931$HG.26418@attbi_s53...
ANN Publisher Jim Campbell, flying just feet away from Scaled's
SpaceShipOne in a Beechcraft Starship chase plane, was the first to report
some indications of possible thermal or load damage on the aft portion of
the spacecraft, just in front of the rocket bell. --

Wow!!! Flying just "feet" away!!! Did Zoom get his space wings also???

Zoom probably went to some FBO in Florida on Monday, and managed to
get a ride in a Starship, making sure he was in the air at the same
time that SpaceShipOne was in the air in Mojave, listening to CNN on
the intercom. Lets see.. approximately 2700 miles between Mojave and
Florida. 2700 times 5280 feet = 14,256,000 feet.

So when you think about it, his statement was not a lie at all.. He
was just "feet" away at the time (14,256,000 of 'em)

Richard Lamb wrote
NOW (finally) we might get a better story that the
silly superficial questions asked by the news media.

How about this Richard: America has returned to manned space
launches... and it's not NASA!

We rocked around in an RV all night in 40 kt winds the night before
and were worried that the launch was going to be scrubbed. But
luckily high pressure was over the area and wind died down right
before taxi out. My friend Bubba flew Richard Branson in to Mojave in
a high dollar three blade helo and then landed him back on the top of
the theme restaurant at LAX (he just can't seem to make a low profile
entry anywhere!) William Shantner was supposedly there as well as Buzz
Aldrin. Most of the event was covered by a local FM station but they
screwed it up pretty bad so we just listened to the scanner. The wind
was still blowing stiff after t/o on top of our RV so I missed a lot
of the air to air conversation, but if anybody wants, I'll try to
narrate what I saw in detail. The test pilot community let me in on a
little secret: a major control failure occurred during launch and the
gyro Rutan used for attitude control tumbled (lost alignment.) This
caused an unplanned departure from the vertical profile. Mike M. took
over manually and saved the son of a bitch just in time! However,
this S-turn maneuver put them over 20 miles off course on the re-entry
window! They still made the downwind gear-down position no sweat. I'm
surprised they didn't relate this drama to the media (did they?) since
it kind of parallels John Glenn's re-entry problems (except this was
on launch.) Rutan plans to go into orbit next. Maybe if the media
isn't smart enough to know about this it's better; I just don't know.

I worried that the shuttle cock had to work perfectly twice in a row
and felt like this was a 50/50 operation. Burt had told an engineer
who works for him when the project began: "The problem with NASA is
that they're not killing enough astronauts." Burt is a genius in my
mind because he is willing to hang it way out there and try things no
one else would dare. For example: the attitude control system when
the vehicle is out of the atmosphere is just compressed air! What
would happen if a little moisture froze up the attitude air valves?
The whole thing was a complete cliff hanger! It is equivalent in my
mind to watching the Mayflower disappear over the horizon bound for
the new world. I'll never forget it.

pacplyer

pacplyer wrote:

The whole thing was a complete cliff hanger! It is equivalent in my
mind to watching the Mayflower disappear over the horizon bound for
the new world. I'll never forget it.

pacplyer

Amen, Pacman.

I only got to watch on CNN, but I was on the edge of my seat,
even during the commercials.

A few weeks ago, bored outta what's left of my mind, I picked up
a few library books on the early space program. I had read all
the hero stuff years back. "The Right Stuff" and "Apollo 13"
tended to emphasize the glory with precious little hard technical
details.

But "Lost Moon", Lovell's side of the Apollo 13 story, and most
especially Gene Krantz's "Failure is Not an Option" gets right
into the nuts and bolts of those early days. They better describe
not just what happened, but why and how it happened.

It's down right scary how critical the most minor details are when
entering a new environment that is as hostile as space.

Your comment about a how a little moisture in an air tank could freeze
up a valve, potentially causing the complete loss of the vehicle was
very much to the point.

Remember the old adage?
"Aviation is not, of itself, inherently dangerous. But to a greater
extent than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness,
incapacity, or neglect".

For space flight, I'd bump that up an order of magnitude (or two?).

Gus Grissom is quoted saying, "If we die we want people to accept it.
We hope that if anything happens to us it will not delay the program.
The conquest of space is worth the risk of life".

And he did.

In the aftermath of the Apollo 1 fire, NASA took a year (and $75 mil)
to redesign the space craft, mature their mental attitudes, and yes,
did come back with a much safer vehicle.

Quite obviously, this was the beginning of the "failure is not an
option"
mentality that took us to the moon and back successfully. I doubt that
public attitude (as shaped by the press) would have allowed for another
disaster of that magnitude during the moon race.

But if Burt were to be lost (Heaven forbid, Please!), end of story.


Richard