HEAD START IN SPACE RACE MOJAVE COMPANY A FRONT-RUNNER IN CREATING PRIVATE REUSABLE SHIP.Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer MOJAVE - In the international competition to win a $10 million prize for the first privately financed and reusable spaceship, eyes are turned toward Mojave's famed aircraft designer Burt Rutan Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan (born June 17, 1943 in Estacada, Oregon) is an American aerospace engineer noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, energy-efficient aircraft. . Rutan's company Scaled Composites Scaled Composites (often abbreviated as Scaled), formerly the Rutan Aircraft Factory, is located at the Mojave Spaceport, Mojave, California, United States and is headed by aircraft designer Burt Rutan. appears to be the X Prize space race front-runner: it has been flying its winged SpaceShipOne for months in test flights and is, thus far, the only contender to acquire a Federal Aviation Administration Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), component of the U.S. Department of Transportation that sets standards for the air-worthiness of all civilian aircraft, inspects and licenses them, and regulates civilian and military air traffic through its air traffic control license for suborbital suborbital /sub·or·bi·tal/ (sub-or´bi-t'l) infraorbital. sub·or·bit·al adj. Situated on or below the floor of the orbit of the eye. n. space flight. ``I'm most impressed with his reasons for doing this,'' X Prize Foundation chairman Peter Diamandis Peter H. Diamandis (born 20 May 1961 in Bronx, New York) is considered a key American figure in the development of the personal spaceflight industry, having created many space-related businesses or organizations. said of Rutan. ``He wants to excite the kids the way the early space pioneers got kids excited. He wants to fuel a golden age of space flight.'' Best known for the globe-circling Voyager, which in 1986 made the first nonstop unrefueled flight around the world, Rutan has designed and built numerous other groundbreaking, unconventional aircraft. Rutan, Diamandis said, is a designer of ``artistic genius.'' His red, white and blue SpaceShipOne is a 25-foot-long rocket-powered craft able to accommodate three people. Carried aloft by a Rutan-designed twin-engine jet called the White Knight White Knight falls off his horse every time it stops. [Br. Lit.: Lewis Carroll Through the Looking-Glass] See : Awkwardness White Knight invents clever objects that never work. [Br. Lit. , SpaceShipOne made its first powered flight out of Mojave Airport in December and has since topped 1,000 mph. Rutan isn't giving interviews or announcing in advance when he will make his space attempt, but 27 X Prize competitors all face a deadline: The prize money, cobbled cob·ble 1 n. 1. A cobblestone. 2. Geology A rock fragment between 64 and 256 millimeters in diameter, especially one that has been naturally rounded. 3. cobbles See cob coal. tr. together from various donors, is on the table through Jan. 1. To win, a spacecraft must make two suborbital flights within two weeks. During each flight, the spacecraft has to reach an altitude of 100 kilometers - 62 miles above Earth. While Scaled Composites does not announce any of its flight tests in advance, there will be a 60-day notice before the first of SpaceShipOne's two flights to capture the X Prize, prize organizers say. Mojave Airport officials are developing plans to accommodate visitors for the launch and the X Prize Foundation is planning to conduct a Webcast of the flight. The 100-kilometer altitude mark is 12 miles higher than the 50-mile mark the Air Force has set for pilots to earn astronaut wings, but not so high as to require extensive heat protection for re-entry RE-ENTRY, estates. The resuming or retaking possession of land which the party lately had. 2. Ground rent deeds and leases frequently contain a clause authorizing the landlord to reenter on the non-payment of rent, or the breach of some covenant, when the , the prize organizers said. The spacecraft must be designed to carry three people, but there's no requirement for passengers during either of the X Prize flights. SpaceShipOne's concept is similar to the NASA/Air Force X-15 rocket plane of the 1960s - a rocket-powered winged craft that is carried aloft by a jet airplane and let go to fly into space. ``They don't use as much Mach number to get there, but it is the same mission profile as the X-15,'' said retired National Aeronautics and Space Administration National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), civilian agency of the U.S. federal government with the mission of conducting research and developing operational programs in the areas of space exploration, artificial satellites (see satellite, artificial), research pilot Bill Dana, one of eight pilots to earn astronaut wings flying X-15s. To reach space once its carrier craft lets it go, SpaceShipOne is to fly nearly straight up at a speed of about 2,400 mph, more than three times the speed of sound. ``There will be several G's, I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. how many, pushing him back into the seat on his (rocket) burn,'' Dana said. ``For me, things always seem to happen faster in flight than in the simulator. It's a busy mission, but not a superhuman su·per·hu·man adj. 1. Above or beyond the human; preternatural or supernatural. 2. Beyond ordinary or normal human ability, power, or experience: "soldiers driven mad by superhuman misery" mission.'' Rutan's progress with his spacecraft is drawing attention both to him and to Mojave Airport, where Scaled Composites is based. A second Mojave Airport company, XCOR XCOR Cross-Correlation , also has received an FAA license for suborbital flights, but XCOR is not vying for the X Prize. ``It's a big deal for the nation, a big deal for California, and a big deal for Mojave,'' said airport manager Stu Witt. ``The spotlight is on him. Will he make it? Who knows. This is flight test in its purest form.'' Diamandis estimates the X Prize teams together have spent about $50 million in developing their spacecraft. ``We have some great teams competing for it,'' Diamandis said. ``These are smart, capable people.'' Rutan's financial backer for SpaceShipOne is Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Allen has not disclosed the amount he is providing, only to say it was a significant multimillion-dollar investment. Aerospace observers estimate the project's cost between $20 million to $30 million. Of Rutan's American competitors, only the Texas company Armadillo Aerospace has filed an application with the FAA for a license, though it has not yet been granted, FAA spokesman Henry Price said. Armadillo Aerospace is headed by John Carmack, designer of the computer games ``Doom'' and ``Quake.'' On SpaceShipOne's latest flight test, on April 8, it hit a top speed of about 1,000 mph and climbed to over 105,000 feet. ``The 40-second rocket boost was smooth with good control,'' said a statement released by Scaled Composites after the flight. ``The pilot commented that the motor was surprisingly quiet; however the boost was heard by ground observers.'' In the space flights, SpaceShipOne's rocket engine will burn for about 65 seconds. Once the engine shuts down, the pilot will begin experiencing weightlessness weightlessness, the absence of any observable effects of gravitation. This condition is experienced by an observer when he and his immediate surroundings are allowed to move freely in the local gravitational field. . The spacecraft will continue upward to the 100 kilometer height and then begin its descent. During re-entry, the spaceship's twin booms will pivot up to act as a speed brake. The twin booms will pivot back down at about 80,000 feet and SpaceShipOne will make its final glide flight to a landing at Mojave. Dana, the retired NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. pilot, praised Rutan's endeavor. ``I think it's great that someone is trying this free of government help,'' Dana said. ``I think it's wonderful he is taking this risk.'' Jim Skeen, (661) 267-5743 james.skeen(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): drawing, 12 photos, 14 boxes Drawing: AT THE THRESHOLD At the Threshold, whose son Lil E. Tee won the 1992 Kentucky Derby for W. Cal Partee, died March 23 of a stroke at Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine in West Lafayette, Ind. The 21-year-old stallion stood at Wayne Houston's Stoney Creek Horse Farm near Mooreland, Ind. OF SPACE Local firm aims to win amateur space race Photo: (1) SpaceShipOne, competing for the X Prize, is being tested at designer Burt Rutan's company Scaled Composites. Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer (2 -- color) Cockpit of the White Knight (3 -- color) CANADIAN ARROW (4 -- color) STARCHASER V-THUNDERSTAR (5 -- color) WILD FIRE (6 -- color) BLACK ARMADILLO armadillo (är'mədĭl`ō), New World armored mammal of the order Edentata, a group that also includes the sloth and the anteater, characterized by peglike teeth without roots or enamel. (7 -- color) COSMOPOLIS XXI (C-21) (8 -- color) NEGEV (9 -- color) KELLY SPACE AND TECHNOLOGY (10 -- color) THE SPIRIT OF LIBERTY (11 -- color) SPACESHIPONE, WHITE KNIGHT (12 -- color) MISSION CONTROL Box: (1) EYES ON THE PRIZE Eyes on the Prize is a 14-hour documentary series about the American Civil Rights Movement that aired in two parts. Part one, six hours long, originally aired on PBS in early 1987 as Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years (1954-1965). (2) SCALED COMPOSITES (3) HYBRID ROCKET MOTOR (4) WHITE KNIGHT (5) SPACESHIPONE (6) CANADIAN ARROW (7) STARCHASER V-THUNDERSTAR (8) WILD FIRE (9) BLACK ARMADILLO (10) COSMOPOLIS XXI (C-21) (11) NEGEV (12) KELLY SPACE AND TECHNOLOGY (13) THE SPIRIT OF LIBERTY (14) MISSION CONTROL Jon Gerung/Staff Artist |
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