PERFECT FLIGHT FOR SPACESHIPONE TEST LOGS SHOW BURT RUTAN'S SPACECRAFT HAD NO MECHANICAL PROBLEMS.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

MOJAVE - Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne test program is a ``testament to what training and good, old-fashioned hard work can do,'' its team said in test logs just released for its prize-winning space flights.

The rocket plane returned - with no mechanical problems - from the Oct. 4 flight, which won its builders the $10 million Ansari X Prize. The prize had been offered for the flight of the first private reusable spacecraft to return with no mechanical problems, the test log said.

``This historic flight not only broke the X-15 record by 13,000 feet and won the X Prize, but was a picture-perfect ending to the program,'' said the report posted on Rutan's Scaled Composites Web site. ``No anomalies were noted on the flight, and SpaceShipOne returned with no maintenance squawks.''

The rocket plane is being sought by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, which already has Rutan's Voyager, the craft that circled the globe on one tank of gas in 1986.

After SpaceShipOne's first space flight on June 21, the museum sent the SpaceShipOne team a letter asking for it to become part of its collection.

``We have asked for it,'' said museum spokesman Peter Golkin. ``We are trying to find out when we can have it.''

No plans have been announced for the future of the spacecraft, though Rutan said after the Oct. 4 flight that he was considering flying it in a test program for the larger, passenger carrying spacecraft he is building for British billionaire Richard Branson.

A small piece of the spacecraft - weighing about 100 grams - will be making an extended journey into space. Part of the spacecraft is slated to be included in a probe to Pluto scheduled for launch in 2006.

The tests logs, posted at scaled.com, provided additional details on the Sept. 29 flight by Mike Melvill and the Oct. 4 flight piloted by Brian Binnie. Those flights culminated a 13-month, 17-flight test program that included just six rocket-powered flights, three of which flew to space.

On the Sept. 29 flight, SpaceShipOne was dropped by its White Knight mothership at 46,500 feet.

Sixty seconds after Melvill fired the rocket motor, SpaceShipOne began to roll - rolling 29 times over a period of about two minutes. Melvill was able to use the spacecraft's reaction control system to stop the rolls before reaching the peak altitude.

Burning for 77 seconds, the rocket pushed SpaceShipOne to speeds of about 2,110 miles an hour. When the motor stopped, SpaceShipOne was at 180,000 feet, and, from there, it coasted to a peak altitude of 337,700, the test log said.

A complex set of factors caused the rolls, including a slightly off-center thrust and the spacecraft's low directional stability at extremely high speeds and at low angles of attack - a term referring to the difference between where the spacecraft's wings are pointed and the direction of the air flowing over its wings, the log said.

The spacecraft also has a high dihedral effect, a tendency to roll in a side wind.

The low directional stability and the high dihedral effect will be corrected on future spacecraft, the test logs said.

To avoid the rolls, the Oct. 4 flight involved ``a slightly less aggressive initial pull-up,'' the test logs said.

On the Oct. 4 flight, SpaceShipOne was dropped at 47,100 feet.

``The rocket burn lasted for 83 seconds, boosting the vehicle to more than 3.09 Mach or 2,186 miles an hour,'' the test log said. ``At motor burnout, SpaceShipOne was at 213,000 feet, and, from there, coasted the rest of the way into space reaching an apogee of 367,500 ... feet.''

Jim Skeen, [phone]

james.skeen(at)dailynews.com