| Subject: Private Spaceship Encounters Glitches |
Author:
Betty
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Date Posted: 12:53:15 06/22/04 Tue
In reply to:
Betty
's message, "Hubbble telescope to die & be destoyed" on 12:26:05 02/15/04 Sun
Private Spaceship Encounters Glitches In Record-Setting Flight
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer, SPACE.com
MOJAVE, CALIFORNIA -- There were tense times during the sky-blistering flight of SpaceShipOne here this morning. Fighting control problems, pilot Mike Melvill wrestled with several anomalies that cut short a pre-planned altitude mark.
However, the first non-governmental rocket ship did succeed in flying to the edge of space, earning the craft's pilot, Mike Melvill, the first set of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)-issued commercial astronaut wings.
At a post-landing press briefing, the 63-year old Melvill described a series of technical snags that haunted his record-setting flight. Right after motor ignition, the pilot said the craft rolled 90 degrees to the left, then 90 degrees to the right. "It has never ever done that before," he explained.
Technical snags
Melvill said he leveled out the rocketship, but then experienced trim problems during his climb outside the Earth's atmosphere -- an issue that he dealt with as he made his way to a desert runway landing.
During SpaceShipOne's climb, Melvill said he also heard a surprising bang, coming from the engine area where a fairing holding the craft's nozzle buckled.
While an altitude of 360,000 feet was targeted, the rocket ship fell short of that mark, attaining 328,491 feet, reported Burt Rutan, head of the Scaled Composites team that designed and built the vehicle.
"It was not a smooth flight from the standpoint of trajectory," Rutan reported at the press briefing. "This was not a perfect flight," he said, although the overall performance of the rocketship was right on the money.
Rutan said the anomaly Melvill experienced was "the most serious flight safety systems problem that we've had in the entire program."
Back up hardware on SpaceShipOne worked and the craft made a beautiful landing, Rutan said. "Even though we really didn't go where we were planning to go todaymakes me feel very good because I felt it's important to put those kind of backup systems inand they worked," he added.
"The backup saved the day," Melvill noted.
Free-floating chocolates
Rutan could not discount the possibility that another flight might be needed before committing pilot and hardware to fly back-to-back flights within a two-week period to win the $10 million Ansari X Prize.
How long the vehicle's hybrid rocket motor operated is not clear, with data from the flight still being assessed. Whether the rocket motor was shut down by Melvill or stopped on its own is not known, Rutan said.
Melvill said his rocket flight was all very exciting. "I wasn't afraid all the way up. But I was a little afraid on the way down."
At apogee -- the highest point of the rocket ship's flight -- Melvill pulled out of a flight suit pocket handfuls of chocolate-coated candies. He marveled at them as they floated free in the cockpit.
Awesome view
As SpaceShipOne arched over and headed toward Earth, Melvill said he began to hear sounds. "The noises you hear are like somebody talking to you very sharply. You begin to believe, wow, should I really be doing this?"
"The sky was jet black above," Melvill said. "The Earth is so beautiful ... It was like nothing I've ever seen before. You really do get the feeling that you've touched the face of God when you do something like this, believe me."
Touching down at the Mojave Airport, the SpaceShipOne made a three-point landing, on two wheels, and nose-mounted skid.
"I was so glad to get it back down and make a decent landing that didn't break anything," Melvill said. "I had to land with what I had," he added.
Upon touchdown and climbing out of the SpaceShipOne's cockpit, Melvill was greeted by Apollo moonwalker, Buzz Aldrin.
"It meant a lot," Melvill said. "To have him come up and shake my hand and congratulate me and tell me that I've joined the club that was serious stuff."
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