A new record...

Now some conflicting information from an AFP story posted at:
"http://www.spacedaily.com/news/xprize-04zg.html"

"Rutan said SpaceShipOne would ultimately be placed in Washington's
National Air and Space Museum ... But until then, he said, it will
likely continue flying and be used to carry out further research to
develop a new generation of spaceliners for British tycoon Richard
Branson, who has ordered five."
Like I said, my source has been wrong before.

- Ed Kyle

On 5 Oct 2004 07:32:58 -0700, in a place far, far away,
made the phosphor on my monitor glow in such a
way as to indicate that:

Now some conflicting information from an AFP story posted at:
"http://www.spacedaily.com/news/xprize-04zg.html"

"Rutan said SpaceShipOne would ultimately be placed in Washington's
National Air and Space Museum ... But until then, he said, it will
likely continue flying and be used to carry out further research to
develop a new generation of spaceliners for British tycoon Richard
Branson, who has ordered five."

That makes a lot more sense to me (even though it's from AFP).
Voyager was a stunt (in the sense that there was no follow-on
planned). SpaceShipOne is a research prototype for a much larger
commercial version, and there's a lot more envelope to explore, and
research to perform in support of that.

In article ,
h (Rand Simberg) wrote:

Voyager was a stunt (in the sense that there was no follow-on
planned). SpaceShipOne is a research prototype for a much larger
commercial version, and there's a lot more envelope to explore, and
research to perform in support of that.

I agree. I've watched a lot of Rutan in the last few weeks, and I'm
convinced that this is not just another job to him. Space is where he's
always wanted to be, and he's finally been given the opportunity to work
there. I wouldn't be surprised if he never designs another airplane
except in support of his space program. He's plainly said that he has
his sights set on reaching orbit, and implied that he has more ideas up
his sleeve (comparable to the articulated wing and use of a hybrid
motor) that will apply towards that goal.

I expect that, as the name implies, SS1 is just the first of what will
be a long and distinguished series of spacecraft coming out of Scaled in
the next decade or two. SS1 itself will continue to fly as long as it's
useful, and then it'll head to the museum and be replaced with the next
craft.

Best,
- Joe

,------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Joseph J. Strout Check out the Mac Web Directory: |
| http://www.macwebdir.com |
`------------------------------------------------------------------'

"Greg D. Moore \(Strider\)" writes:

Voyager I believe has never made another flight after the record setting
one. [...]

Didn't they fly it to the Smithsonian? I think that's how it got there
from Edwards...

Lou Scheffer

On 2004-10-05, Rand Simberg wrote:

I read that today's flight still didn't push SS1 to its limit, even
with the existing engine.

Perhaps not, but I'm sure it's starting to approach it.

He flew to 368,000'[1]; if memory serves, they'd originally planned the
earlier two high-flights to be to 360,000'. So either they were going
all out first time, or there's still a margin to play with. I suspect
the former is quite plausible.

[1] I've seen some saying 377k, but nothing corroborating.

--
-Andrew Gray

"Rand Simberg" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 4 Oct 2004 15:04:10 -0700, in a place far, far away, "Mike
Walsh" made the phosphor on my monitor glow in
such a way as to indicate that:

If I were Paul Allen, I'd commission a higher-performance engine, and
try to set some additional altitude records, to make it more
interesting for the future competitors. It would be a pretty low-cost
thing to do, on the margin, and encourage the development of a better
engine (perhaps a liquid this time?).

Perhaps they might want to work on a few things like the roll
problem. I would also suspect there is a list of less-than-optimum
things they would like to fix but didn't have time to do on the
X-Prize schedule.

Based on today's flight, they don't seem to have a roll problem...

To me, it would make sense to get as much information out of
Space Ship 1 as they can before they get the new and larger ship
constructed.

I agree. I'm a little surprised that they're retiring it before
getting a lot more experience with it.

There appear to be some contradictory remarks about what is
going to be done with Space Ship 1. I read Burt Rutan quoted
as saying he was going use it to get data to be used in developing
Space Ship 2.

Mike Walsh

"Rand Simberg" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 05 Oct 2004 13:22:24 GMT, in a place far, far away, "Greg D.
Moore \(Strider\)" made the phosphor
on my monitor glow in such a way as to indicate that:

I'm a little surprised that they're retiring it before
getting a lot more experience with it.

Unlike NASA, Rutan can quit while he's ahead.

That might make sense, if he were (like you, apparently) a quitter.

My understanding is Rutan does have a history of "quitting" after he's
won.

Voyager I believe has never made another flight after the record setting
one. I believe another poster a few months ago listed several craft that
Rutan built, achieved the particular goal in mind and then never flew
again.

Not flying SS1 again (assuming that's what happens) doesn't necessarily
mean
quitting.

I agree, but apparently, to Greg, it does.

Just be clear on which Greg you're referring to here. :-)

"Joe Strout" wrote in message
...
In article ,
h (Rand Simberg) wrote:

Voyager was a stunt (in the sense that there was no follow-on
planned). SpaceShipOne is a research prototype for a much larger
commercial version, and there's a lot more envelope to explore, and
research to perform in support of that.

I agree. I've watched a lot of Rutan in the last few weeks, and I'm
convinced that this is not just another job to him. Space is where he's
always wanted to be, and he's finally been given the opportunity to work
there. I wouldn't be surprised if he never designs another airplane
except in support of his space program. He's plainly said that he has
his sights set on reaching orbit, and implied that he has more ideas up
his sleeve (comparable to the articulated wing and use of a hybrid
motor) that will apply towards that goal.

I saw a clip on NBC's Today show today. He basically said he was giving up
anything else other than space.

I think he's got teh bug and is going to do what he can to get tehre.



I expect that, as the name implies, SS1 is just the first of what will
be a long and distinguished series of spacecraft coming out of Scaled in
the next decade or two. SS1 itself will continue to fly as long as it's
useful, and then it'll head to the museum and be replaced with the next
craft.

Best,
- Joe

,------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Joseph J. Strout Check out the Mac Web Directory: |
| http://www.macwebdir.com |
`------------------------------------------------------------------'

On Tue, 05 Oct 2004 23:46:16 GMT, in a place far, far away, "Greg D.
Moore \(Strider\)" made the phosphor
on my monitor glow in such a way as to indicate that:

My understanding is Rutan does have a history of "quitting" after he's
won.

Voyager I believe has never made another flight after the record setting
one. I believe another poster a few months ago listed several craft that
Rutan built, achieved the particular goal in mind and then never flew
again.

Not flying SS1 again (assuming that's what happens) doesn't necessarily
mean
quitting.

I agree, but apparently, to Greg, it does.

Just be clear on which Greg you're referring to here. :-)

Sorry, not you. The one who thinks that Rutan is a quitter... ;-)

If I were you, with people like Kuperberg in the group, I'd change my
name. That's one of the advantages of having a weird and rare first
name...

In article ,
Rand Simberg wrote:
Sorry, not you. The one who thinks that Rutan is a quitter... ;-)

Look, all I said was that Rutan *can* quit while he's ahead. And all I
meant was that he could retire SS1 before it crashes and kills somebody.
I think that it would be wise, and I don't think that it would make
him a "quitter". But frankly, I don't care what he is, or what he will
do either.
--
/\ Greg Kuperberg (UC Davis)
/ \ Home page: http://www.math.ucdavis.edu/~greg/
\ / Visit the Math ArXiv Front at http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/
\/ * All the math that's fit to e-print *