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Old June 21st 04, 05:08 PM
Alan Erskine
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"Doug..." wrote in message
...
In article ,
says...
I'm probably not going to be the first to post this, but SS1 just landed
after successfully reaching 62 miles altitude!


Actually, you were the first, Rick!

I guess there were a couple of problems -- the engine cut out a bit
early, though it imparted enough delta-V to push the craft up over 100
km. There were also "a couple of bangs" at some point, and the aft
motor fairing seems ot have buckled slightly.

Those are more issues for the two-week turnaround portion of the X-Prize
requirements, I would think. I dunno how long it's going to take them
to scope out what the engine-out problem was, or why they had a slight
fairing buckle.

But it shows why this was NOT an X-Prize flight -- when flying a new
vehicle in a new flight profile for the first time, you can never be
totally sure what kinds of things will come up. Now they'll be able to
tackle the first of the two X-Prize flights with a little more knowledge
and capability of turning the vehicle around in the proscribed two-week
timeframe.

Doug


Could the buckling have been the source of the bangs?

This is going to be a very long 168 hour fortnight, not just for the people
at Scaled, but for thousands of people around the world.


--
Alan Erskine
We can get people to the Moon in five years,
not the fifteen GWB proposes.
Give NASA a real challenge