Congratulations Scaled on 13P and 100,000 feet!

from Space.com
SECOND SUCCESSFUL ROCKET-POWERED FLIGHT FOR AMERICAN SPACESHIPONE TEAM
04.08.2004
Hot on the heels of receiving it's FAA license, the American SpaceShipOne
team had a perfect rocket-powered flight today, April 8, reaching an
altitude of 105,000 ft.

Behind the controls of SpaceShipOne's second successful powered flight was
pilot and future astronaut, Peter Siebold.

The engine burned for 40 seconds and reached a speed of approximately Mach
2, making it the first privately built space vehicle to accomplish this
feat.

"105,000 feet down, 223,000 feet to go!" exclaimed an excited onlooker, as
he watched the ship fly overhead.

Jon G wrote:

from Space.com
SECOND SUCCESSFUL ROCKET-POWERED FLIGHT FOR AMERICAN SPACESHIPONE TEAM
04.08.2004
Hot on the heels of receiving it's FAA license, the American SpaceShipOne
team had a perfect rocket-powered flight today, April 8, reaching an
altitude of 105,000 ft.


Does anyone know at what time they received their license and at what time
the vehicle took off? They seemed to have shown to be able to launch on
short
notice.

Alain Fournier

"Alain Fournier" wrote in message
...
Jon G wrote:
Does anyone know at what time they received their license and at what time
the vehicle took off? They seemed to have shown to be able to launch on
short
notice.

Alain Fournier

Either that, or they had forwarning.


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

on Thu, 08 Apr 2004 22:54:37 GMT, Jon G sez:
` from Space.com
` SECOND SUCCESSFUL ROCKET-POWERED FLIGHT FOR AMERICAN SPACESHIPONE TEAM
` 04.08.2004
` Hot on the heels of receiving it's FAA license, the American SpaceShipOne
` team had a perfect rocket-powered flight today, April 8, reaching an
` altitude of 105,000 ft.

` Behind the controls of SpaceShipOne's second successful powered flight was
` pilot and future astronaut, Peter Siebold.

"future" astronaut. At what height, duration, velocity, does the
designation "astronaut" get to be applied? Well, I guess he's
already among a pretty exclusive fraternity with that excursion.
Not being well versed on military jet performance, I don't know:
how many craft are capable of and regularly reach that height?

` The engine burned for 40 seconds and reached a speed of approximately Mach
` 2, making it the first privately built space vehicle to accomplish this
` feat.

` "105,000 feet down, 223,000 feet to go!" exclaimed an excited onlooker, as
` he watched the ship fly overhead.



--
================================================== ========================
Pete Vincent
Disclaimer: all I know I learned from reading Usenet.

"pete" wrote in message
...
on Thu, 08 Apr 2004 22:54:37 GMT, Jon G
sez:
` from Space.com
` SECOND SUCCESSFUL ROCKET-POWERED FLIGHT FOR AMERICAN SPACESHIPONE TEAM
` 04.08.2004
` Hot on the heels of receiving it's FAA license, the American
SpaceShipOne
` team had a perfect rocket-powered flight today, April 8, reaching an
` altitude of 105,000 ft.

` Behind the controls of SpaceShipOne's second successful powered flight
was
` pilot and future astronaut, Peter Siebold.

"future" astronaut. At what height, duration, velocity, does the
designation "astronaut" get to be applied? Well, I guess he's
already among a pretty exclusive fraternity with that excursion.
Not being well versed on military jet performance, I don't know:
how many craft are capable of and regularly reach that height?

100km - about 330,000 feet. They've got a way to go, but boy, are they on
the way!

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

"pete" wrote:
on Thu, 08 Apr 2004 22:54:37 GMT, Jon G
sez:
` from Space.com
` SECOND SUCCESSFUL ROCKET-POWERED FLIGHT FOR AMERICAN
SPACESHIPONE TEAM
` 04.08.2004
` Hot on the heels of receiving it's FAA license, the American
SpaceShipOne
` team had a perfect rocket-powered flight today, April 8,
reaching an
` altitude of 105,000 ft.

` Behind the controls of SpaceShipOne's second successful powered
flight was
` pilot and future astronaut, Peter Siebold.

"future" astronaut. At what height, duration, velocity, does the
designation "astronaut" get to be applied? Well, I guess he's
already among a pretty exclusive fraternity with that excursion.
Not being well versed on military jet performance, I don't know:
how many craft are capable of and regularly reach that height?

Military pilots who flew higher than 50 miles during the X-15
program received astronaut wings. One could accept this as an
arbitrary necessary definition of "astronaut". (However, it should
be noted that *civilian* pilots of the X-15 who exceeded 50 miles
altitude were *not* awarded astronaut wings, e.g., John McKay and
Joseph Walker.)

It's entirely possible that they're waiting for someone to reach the
minimum X-Prize altitude of 100 km (about 62 miles) before calling
them *genuine* astronauts, though, for all I know.

-- Best Regards,
Matthew Funke

In article ,
"Matthew Funke" wrote:

It's entirely possible that they're waiting for someone to reach the
minimum X-Prize altitude of 100 km (about 62 miles) before calling
them *genuine* astronauts, though, for all I know.

That seems likely to me. The X-Prize criterion of 100 km wasn't just
picked arbitrarily; it's the most widely used definition of the boundary
of space. So, a pilot (or other crew member) who flies into space is an
astronaut. Makes sense to me.

(I'll never be a pilot or crew member, so I'm hoping some acceptance
will come for granting astronaut wings to civilians who fly into space
as well... since that I almost certainly WILL do someday, and it'd be
nice to have the bragging rights!)

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

In article ,
pete wrote:
` pilot and future astronaut, Peter Siebold.

"future" astronaut. At what height, duration, velocity, does the
designation "astronaut" get to be applied?

Well, it's ill-defined. *Almost* everybody -- the US government is the
major holdout -- says that space begins at 100km. So, is anyone who flies
in space an astronaut? Seems reasonable, although one can argue about the
exact definition.

(I'm told that in the early days of aviation, there were three classes
of fliers: aviators, aviatrixes, and aeronauts. Aviators and aviatrixes
were pilots, male and female respectively. Aeronauts were *passengers*.
Taking that analogy would make Dennis Tito the first astronaut... :-))

Well, I guess he's
already among a pretty exclusive fraternity with that excursion.
Not being well versed on military jet performance, I don't know:
how many craft are capable of and regularly reach that height?

105,000ft is well beyond the normal service ceiling of any current jet
aircraft (barring, possibly, the hypothetical Aurora). Most jets poop out
at 60-70,000ft; specialized types like the U-2 and SR-71 can go a little
higher.

Top-of-the-line jet fighters can reach circa 100,000ft momentarily in a
carefully-planned "zoom climb", building up speed at lower altitude and
then pulling up hard and coasting upward. At the top of the trajectory,
typically their engines have stopped and they have only limited control,
and they certainly don't have the lift to *stay* at that altitude.
--
MOST launched 30 June; science observations running | Henry Spencer
since Oct; first surprises seen; papers pending. |

On Fri, 9 Apr 2004 18:03:05 GMT, in a place far, far away,
(Henry Spencer) made the phosphor on my monitor
glow in such a way as to indicate that:

(I'm told that in the early days of aviation, there were three classes
of fliers: aviators, aviatrixes, and aeronauts. Aviators and aviatrixes
were pilots, male and female respectively. Aeronauts were *passengers*.
Taking that analogy would make Dennis Tito the first astronaut... :-))

Well, or Helen Sharman, or the Japanese journalist. For that matter,
mission and payload specialists aren't pilots.

In article ,
Rand Simberg wrote:
(I'm told that in the early days of aviation, there were three classes
of fliers: aviators, aviatrixes, and aeronauts. Aviators and aviatrixes
were pilots, male and female respectively. Aeronauts were *passengers*.
Taking that analogy would make Dennis Tito the first astronaut... :-))

Well, or Helen Sharman, or the Japanese journalist.

I wonder about some of the international "guest cosmonauts" who went up on
Soyuz flights even earlier... although at least the early ones went up on
two-man Soyuzes, which had no room for pure passengers.

For that matter, mission and payload specialists aren't pilots.

Mission specialists, at least, should qualify as aviator-analogs on the
grounds that they're flight engineers. With payload specialists, it's
more variable. Hmm, looking at the early ones...

Lichtenberg and Merbold on STS-9 were there for Spacelab 1, thoroughly
integrated with the rest of the crew and practically mission specialists
themselves, since Spacelab was ESA's contribution to the shuttle program
rather than just some random payload.

Walker on 41D is somewhat more debatable, but he at least was flying to
babysit a specific major experiment.

And then we reach 41G, with Garneau and Scully-Power. Neither of them
attached to a major payload, both late additions to the crew, and --
according to Cooper's "Before Lift-Off" -- both of them viewed very much
as unwanted baggage by the original crew. I think it's pretty clear-cut
that both of them were passengers.
--
MOST launched 30 June; science observations running | Henry Spencer
since Oct; first surprises seen; papers pending. |