X PRIZE – WITNESS TO HISTORY
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With $10 million up for grabs Chris and I decided to head
up to Mojave in the Antelope Valley of California to watch Burt Rutan try to
win the X-Prize with White Knight and Spaceship One. We opted to treat
ourselves to the Beach Motel at Point Mugu in |
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The accommodations were rough but we managed to survive with a nice room and a great beach out the back door. |
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The information on the web site said to plan for big
crowds with a scheduled launch of 0600 the gates to the airport opened at
0300 (yes in the AM – ugh). This picture of the entrance to the |
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We decided to leave Pt. Mugu at 0300 for the 2 hour drive to Mojave. It was a party atmosphere on the flight line for the folks that were there but the traffic was light and there were only a 1000 or so folks that showed up for both launches. |
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I had my handy-dandy VHF radio receiver and looked up the ground and tower frequencies from the airfield information on the web. However, the major activity was on an unpublished mission frequency. Fortunately we ran into some one who had already found the mission control frequency on his scanner so all we had to do was punch it in and listen to all the communications between Mission Control, White Knight (the launch aircraft), Spaceship One, and the chase aircraft as they went through their pre-takeoff, climb, pre-launch, post-launch, and recovery procedures and communications. Chris was ready with the telephoto lens and we were right next to the taxi way so we could see everyone taxi out and take off. |
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A small homebuilt chase plane took off first followed by White Knight with Spaceship One slung underneath. |
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They lumbered into the air and took one hour to climb up to the release point 48,000 feet above and slightly to the southeast of the field. |
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Listening to our radio we knew the launch was coming but because of their altitude we couldn’t see anything until the rocket motor fired. The smoke trail was easily visible to the naked eye and everyone started cheering. What we weren’t able to see were the multiple un-commanded rolls the aircraft did as it headed on the upward trajectory. Fortunately, the pilot, Mike Melville, got it under control, stabilized and started the recovery. |
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One by one all the chase aircraft joined with Spaceship One to monitor the un-powered glide and recovery at Mojave. This took approximately another half hour. In this picture you can see Spaceship One in the lead with the small home built chase aircraft just off the left wing. The large white chase plane off the right wing is a twin engine Beechcraft Starship. Finally, on the far left wing is an Alpha Jet. |
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Recovery and landing were perfect. After all the whoops
and shouts Chris and I headed back to Pt. Mugu and Chris took the train back
down to |
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The second of the two flights required for the X-Prize was scheduled for Monday, October 4th. I was able to get a room on base at Edwards (a short 20 miles from Mohave) for Sunday night which allowed me to sleep in a little later. Monday morning the whole process was repeated with all the same equipment in order to demonstrate the reusability of Spaceship One and allow Burt Rutan, Paul Allen, Mojave Aerospace Ventures and Scaled Composites, Inc to capture the $10 million Ansari X Prize. |
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This time the launch conditions were a little different with the launch altitude being in the contrail level so we were able to watch as White Knight approached the release point and launched Spaceship One on flight X2. The contrail going to the left of the picture is White Knight after release. The vertical contrail in the center is Spaceship One on the start of the boosted climb. Just off to the right is a small contrail from the Alpha Jet that was chasing at release. |
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Everything went according to plan and pilot Brian Binnie flew to an altitude of 367.442 feet beating the old military record of 354,200 feet set by Joe Walker flying an X-15 in 1963. |
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