SpaceDev Powers SpaceShipOne to Break Sound Barrier
SpaceDev Powers SpaceShipOne to Break Sound Barrier
Flight on Historic 100th Anniversary of Wright Bros.
POWAY, CA (December 17, 2003) – SpaceDev’s (OTCBB: SPDV) revolutionary rocket motor technology successfully powered SpaceShipOne on its historic first powered flight, on the 100th anniversary of the first human powered flight by the Wright brothers. Today, a significant milestone was achieved by our customer, Scaled Composites, as they successfully tested the first manned supersonic flight of an aircraft developed by a small company’s private, non-government effort.
"It was an incredible sight!" said SpaceDev founding chairman and chief executive Jim Benson. "We were watching as the White Knight dropped SpaceShipOne at about ten miles up, and we waited breathlessly as the White Knight pealed off and SpaceShipOne fell for a few seconds. Then with a really visible flash of light and stream of smoke, our rocket motor lit, and SpaceShipOne seemed to blast straight up for about 15 seconds that seemed like minutes. Then the flame and smoke stopped, but you could still see little SpaceShipOne coasting up toward space at an incredible speed. What a sight! It was even more exciting than watching Apollo 17 lift off at night way back in 1972. After working on this project for four years, space is now exciting again!"
Thursday, December 18, 2003
Saturday, December 13, 2003
U.S. space program needs 'destination mars': "U.S. space program needs 'destination mars'
SHARON BEGLEY, The Wall Street Journal Friday, December 12, 2003
(12-12) 08:58 PST (AP) --
Peering into the heavens on a starry night, you can't help but be struck by the single most obvious trait of that 'depthless spatter' (as John Updike called it in a recent poem): It does not lack for destinations.
But you wouldn't know that from the rumblings out of Washington. It has been 10 months since the tragic loss of the space shuttle Columbia, and four months since the Accident Investigation Board called for a national debate on U.S. space goals. There hasn't been much of one; instead, officials have been meeting behind closed doors as part of an interagency review of space policy, asking how, or even whether, the U.S. should reach for missions more glorious than joy rides that go around in circles (via the space shuttle and International Space Station).
What's now emerging is more than dismaying. It looks like President Bush will propose little more than a riff on President Kennedy's vision of 42 years ago: Destination Moon.
Next week marks the 100th anniversary of the first powered flight in a heavier-than-air machine, Orville Wright's 12-second flight over the dunes of the Outer Banks, with brother Wilbur running alongside. With that derring-do in mind, surely we can reach higher than lunar repeats. Measured by its value to science or to the soul, or by how it can inspire discovery or the imagination, the moon might as well be green cheese. "
snip
SHARON BEGLEY, The Wall Street Journal Friday, December 12, 2003
(12-12) 08:58 PST (AP) --
Peering into the heavens on a starry night, you can't help but be struck by the single most obvious trait of that 'depthless spatter' (as John Updike called it in a recent poem): It does not lack for destinations.
But you wouldn't know that from the rumblings out of Washington. It has been 10 months since the tragic loss of the space shuttle Columbia, and four months since the Accident Investigation Board called for a national debate on U.S. space goals. There hasn't been much of one; instead, officials have been meeting behind closed doors as part of an interagency review of space policy, asking how, or even whether, the U.S. should reach for missions more glorious than joy rides that go around in circles (via the space shuttle and International Space Station).
What's now emerging is more than dismaying. It looks like President Bush will propose little more than a riff on President Kennedy's vision of 42 years ago: Destination Moon.
Next week marks the 100th anniversary of the first powered flight in a heavier-than-air machine, Orville Wright's 12-second flight over the dunes of the Outer Banks, with brother Wilbur running alongside. With that derring-do in mind, surely we can reach higher than lunar repeats. Measured by its value to science or to the soul, or by how it can inspire discovery or the imagination, the moon might as well be green cheese. "
snip
TheStar.com - In search of the Wright stuff: "Dec. 13, 2003. 08:29 AM
In search of the Wright stuff
After the birth of the airplane on that chilly day 100 years ago, it seemed the only way to go was up Advances like the speedy s
BILL TAYLOR
FEATURE WRITER
'They done it! They done it! Damned if they ain't flew!'
---Johnny Moore, eyewitness
Humanity's future turned on the toss of a coin.
That was how Orville and Wilbur Wright decided who would be the pilot for man's first controlled, powered flight. Wilbur flipped, Orville called heads, the coin came down tails. So Wilbur would try to guide their Flyer into the air and safely back to land.
It was Dec. 14, 1903, a calm, sunny afternoon at Kill Devil Hills, N.C. Without knowing 'a wing and a prayer' would become an aviation clich', the brothers bowed their heads and asked a blessing.
The plane was launched from rails laid on the sand. Orville ran alongside and steadied the right wing as Wilbur opened the throttle. Ten metres down the track, Orville fell behind. Another couple of metres, and it began to lift. But Wilbur, without benefit of flying lessons, committed a basic piloting error. He pulled back too hard on the stick, the nose rose sharply and the Flyer stalled. It crashed to the ground, damaging the right wing.
Wilbur had been in the air less than four seconds and hardly in control. The brothers knew this didn't count. But they knew, too, what was within their grasp. They wired their father: 'Success assured. Keep quiet.'"
snip
In search of the Wright stuff
After the birth of the airplane on that chilly day 100 years ago, it seemed the only way to go was up Advances like the speedy s
BILL TAYLOR
FEATURE WRITER
'They done it! They done it! Damned if they ain't flew!'
---Johnny Moore, eyewitness
Humanity's future turned on the toss of a coin.
That was how Orville and Wilbur Wright decided who would be the pilot for man's first controlled, powered flight. Wilbur flipped, Orville called heads, the coin came down tails. So Wilbur would try to guide their Flyer into the air and safely back to land.
It was Dec. 14, 1903, a calm, sunny afternoon at Kill Devil Hills, N.C. Without knowing 'a wing and a prayer' would become an aviation clich', the brothers bowed their heads and asked a blessing.
The plane was launched from rails laid on the sand. Orville ran alongside and steadied the right wing as Wilbur opened the throttle. Ten metres down the track, Orville fell behind. Another couple of metres, and it began to lift. But Wilbur, without benefit of flying lessons, committed a basic piloting error. He pulled back too hard on the stick, the nose rose sharply and the Flyer stalled. It crashed to the ground, damaging the right wing.
Wilbur had been in the air less than four seconds and hardly in control. The brothers knew this didn't count. But they knew, too, what was within their grasp. They wired their father: 'Success assured. Keep quiet.'"
snip
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