24 June 2004, 22:42
SpaceShipOne: a view from the trenches
It has been my habit to use this site to relay not-so-important information about the not-so-exciting things that I do on the weekends - this being despite my promise not to. This post is not going to be any different, in that I am going to tell you about my weekend. However, I have to admit that I had a very exciting weekend. Not only was I able to get out of the hole that is my bedroom, but I also got to hang out with some wonderful people that I had missed tons, visit California, see the desert, have Slurpees, and see real stars. Oh, and witness history in the making . . . from only metres away.
Out in the Mojave Desert, north of Los Angeles, hides Scaled Composites and a small team of brilliant engineers dedicated to designing funny looking little airplanes. One of their projects includes their entry for the XPrize – the White Knight carrier plane and SpaceShipOne, the little rocket that rests awhile under WK’s belly before blasting out of the atmosphere and into space history. This is what happened early Monday morning, when 63 year old Mike Melville earned his astronaut wings by barely reaching his goal of 100km. And I was there - standing about 10m from the runway with thousands of other people, staring into the blinding sun while WK took off and then landed over an hour later along with 4 chase planes and SS1. It was all very cool. I would give you more details, but I am sure (well, I hope) that you’ve already read all about it.
When I returned to Houston last night and checked my email, I found 6 messages relating to one of the spectator signs that read ‘Space Ship 1, NASA 0.’ My roommate was looking to start a fight and tried to tell me that NASA’s ability was still way greater than that of anything accomplished by the XPrize teams. Now, I will be the first to admit that SpaceShipOne has nothing on the capability of the shuttle. The shuttle can carry 7 people instead of just 3, it gets way farther than any sub orbital vehicle could ever reach, and its payload capacity far exceeds 8000lbs. However, for 20 million dollars, NASA cannot get much farther than a small stack of papers and a couple of prominently advertised handshakes. Besides, I would like to think that the point of the contest is not to compete with NASA, but to free up some of NASA’s resources to work on much cooler projects and to bring space excitement back to the general public.
Anyway, that’s my little bit for the day. I’ll fill you in on more some day soon. Finally, if you are bored and looking to spend a few dollars, send them to the daVinci Project. This is not only because I think Brian Feeney is cool, but also because I want to see a real race here. Bring on the excitement!