SPACE GLIMPSE FOR KIDS.Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer PALMDALE - Nearly 1,400 Palmdale youngsters will board chartered buses before dawn Monday to travel to Mojave for the final X Prize flight of Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne. Rancho Vista developer Gregg Anderson paid for the 31 buses - plus 1,500 bottles of orange juice, 1,500 bottles of water and 1,500 doughnuts. ``I go crazy every once in a while,'' said Anderson, who will be riding a bus with the youngsters. ``It's going to be great fun. ... I have a hunch 10 or 20 years from now, these kids will say, Yeah, I was out there.'' Anderson invited pupils - except for kindergartners - from Rancho Vista Elementary School elementary school: see school. , Esperanza School and Hillview Middle School Hillview Middle School is a public middle school in Menlo Park, California, part of the Menlo Park City School District. It is notable as having been named a California Distinguished School seven times. , all located within the Rancho Vista master-plan community. ``We've very excited,'' said Rancho Vista Principal Paula Sour. ``It's an opportunity to see history being made. It should be great.'' What's the cost? ``A lot,'' Anderson said. He has arranged bus trips for youngsters before. In the early 1980s, he took youngsters to a space shuttle space shuttle, reusable U.S. space vehicle. Developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), it consists of a winged orbiter, two solid-rocket boosters, and an external tank. landing at Edwards Air Force Base Edwards Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 301,000 acres (121,805 hectares), S Calif., NE of Lancaster; est. 1933. It is one of the largest air force bases in the United States and has the world's longest runway. , with arrangements made by the late state Sen. W.J. ``Pete'' Knight, then recently retired from the Air Force. In 1990, when Quartz Hill High School's football team played a championship game at Anaheim Stadium, Anderson worried about teenagers driving miles on a Friday night. He chartered buses for spectators, with pizza onboard. SpaceShipOne completed the first of two required 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. flights Wednesday. If the rocket plane rocket plane n. 1. An aircraft powered by one or more rocket engines. 2. An aircraft designed to carry and launch rockets. reaches 62 miles above Earth and returns safely on Monday, it wins the $10 million prize offered by the St. Louis-based Ansari X Prize The Ansari X PRIZE was a space competition in which the X PRIZE Foundation offered a US$10,000,000 prize for the first non-government organization to launch a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice within two weeks. Foundation for the first privately financed, reusable spacecraft. IF YOU GO Mojave Airport will open its gates at 3 a.m. Monday to spectators for Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne launch. Admission will be $20 per vehicle. Traffic may be heavy. It backed up for miles before SpaceShipOne's June 21 trial flight that drew thousands of spectators, so organizers advised spectators to plan to arrive by 5 a.m. Recreational vehicles can get in starting at 5 p.m. Sunday for $50. To reach Mojave Airport, spectators can travel north on the Antelope Valley Freeway The Antelope Valley Freeway is a freeway in Los Angeles and Kern counties in southern California. It is signed as California State Highway 14 along its length. It connects Greater Los Angeles to the rapidly developing Antelope Valley. until it becomes two-lane Highway 14 just outside Mojave. Turn right at the first stoplight onto Highway 58, then left on Airport Boulevard. CAPTION(S): box Box: IF YOU GO (see text) |
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