SpaceShipOne
Encyclopedia
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SpaceShipOne was a suborbital air-launched
spaceplane
that completed the first manned
private spaceflight
in 2004. That same year, it won the US$10 million Ansari X Prize
and was immediately retired from active service. Its mothership was named "White Knight". Both craft were developed and flown by Mojave Aerospace Ventures
, which was a joint venture between Paul Allen
and Scaled Composites
, Burt Rutan
's aviation company. Allen provided the funding of approximately US$25 million.
Rutan has indicated that ideas about the project began as early as 1994 and the full-time development cycle time to the 2004 accomplishments was about three years. The vehicle first achieved supersonic flight on December 17, 2003, which was also the one-hundredth anniversary of the Wright Brothers
' historic first powered flight. SpaceShipOne's first official spaceflight, known as flight 15P
, was piloted by Mike Melvill
. A few days before that flight, the Mojave Air and Space Port was licensed as the USA's first commercial spaceport. A few hours after that flight, Melvill became the first licensed U.S. commercial astronaut
. The overall project name was "Tier One" which has evolved into Tier 1b
with a goal of taking a successor ship's first passengers into space within the next few years.
and Scaled Composites
, Burt Rutan
's aviation company, in their Tier One
program), without government funding. On June 21, 2004, it made the first privately funded human spaceflight. On October 4, it won the US$10 million Ansari X Prize
, by reaching 100 kilometers in altitude twice in a two-week period with the equivalent of three people on board and with no more than ten percent of the non-fuel weight of the spacecraft replaced between flights. Development costs were estimated to be US$25 million, funded completely by Paul Allen
.
During its test programme, SpaceShipOne set a number of important "firsts", including first privately funded aircraft to exceed Mach 2 and Mach 3, first privately funded manned spacecraft to exceed 100km altitude
, and first privately funded reusable manned spacecraft.
SpaceShipOne is an experimental air-launched
rocket-powered aircraft with suborbital flight capability that uses a hybrid rocket
motor. The design features a unique "feathering" atmospheric reentry
system where the rear half of the wing and the twin tail
booms folded upward along a hinge running the length of the wing; this increased drag
while remaining stable. The achievements of SpaceShipOne are more comparable to the X-15
than orbiting spacecraft like the Space Shuttle
. Accelerating a spacecraft to orbital speed
requires more than 60 times as much energy as accelerating it to Mach 3.
SpaceShipOne is registered
with the FAA
as . N is the prefix for US-registered aircraft; 328KF was chosen by Scaled Composites to stand for 328 K (abbreviation for 1000) feet (about 100 kilometers
), the officially designated edge of space
. The original choice of registry number, N100KM, was already taken. N328KF is registered as a glider
, reflecting the fact that most of its independent flight is unpowered.
SpaceShipOne's first flight, 01C, was an unmanned captive flight test
on May 20, 2003. Glide tests followed, starting with flight 03G on August 7, 2003. Its first powered flight, flight 11P
, was made on December 17, 2003, the 100th anniversary of the first powered flight
.
On April 1, 2004, Scaled Composites received the first license for sub-orbital rocket flights to be issued by the US Office of Commercial Space Transportation
. This license permitted the company to conduct powered test flights over the course of one year. On June 17, 2004, Mojave Airport reclassified itself (part-time) as the Mojave Spaceport
.
Flight 15P
on June 21, 2004, was SpaceShipOne's first spaceflight
, and the first privately funded human spaceflight. There were a few control issues, but these were resolved prior to the Ansari X PRIZE flights that followed, with flight 17P
on October 4, 2004, winning the prize.
The SpaceShipOne Team was awarded the Space Achievement Award by the Space Foundation
in 2005.
All of the flights of SpaceShipOne were from the Mojave Airport Civilian Flight Test Center. Flights were numbered, starting with flight 01 on May 20, 2003. One or two letters are appended to the number to indicate the type of mission. An appended C indicates that the flight was a captive carry, G indicates an unpowered glide, and P indicates a powered flight. If the actual flight differs in category from the intended flight, two letters are appended: the first indicating the intended mission and the second the mission actually performed.
In the table below, the "top speed" reported is the Mach number
at burn-out (the end of the rocket burn). This is not an absolute speed.
The flights were accompanied by two chase plane
s; an Extra 300 owned and flown by Chuck Coleman, and a Beechcraft Starship
.
backgrounds. Mike Melvill
is a test pilot
, Brian Binnie
is a former Navy pilot, and Doug Shane
and Peter Siebold
are engineers at Scaled Composites. They qualified to fly SpaceShipOne by training on the Tier One flight simulator and in White Knight and other Scaled Composites aircraft.
On July 25, 2005 SpaceShipOne was taken to the Oshkosh Airshow
in Oshkosh
, Wisconsin
. After the airshow, Mike Melvill and crew flew the White Knight, carrying SpaceShipOne, to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, where Melvill spoke to a group of about 300 military and civilian personnel. Later in the evening, Melvill gave a presentation at the Dayton Engineers Club, entitled "Some Experiments in Space Flight", in honor of Wilbur Wright
's now-famous presentation to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1901 entitled "Some Experiments in Flight." The White Knight then transported SpaceShipOne to the Smithsonian Institution's
National Air and Space Museum
to be put on display. It was unveiled on Wednesday October 5, 2005 in the Milestones of Flight gallery and is now on display to the public in the main atrium between the Spirit of St. Louis
and the Bell X-1
.
SpaceShipOne became a popular model rocket
in 2004. Estes Industries
currently offers several flying model rockets of SpaceShipOne. A piece of SpaceShipOne's carbon fiber
material was launched aboard the New Horizons
mission to Pluto
in 2006.
featured a full-scale replica of the spacecraft in a wing of its museum
which housed other creations of Burt Rutan. Using the same fiberglass molds as the original, it was so exact in its replication - despite not having any doors or interior - that it was dubbed "Serial 2 Scaled" by Scaled Composites
. Each and every painstaking detail in its appearance was matched, down to the N328KF registration number on its fuselage. It is so precise that, during a video presentation held every hour in the museum, it can display the two different modes of its 'feathering' ability, albeit through the aid of pulleys and wires (there is no machinery in the replica).
Another full-scale replica of SpaceShipOne hangs in the rotunda of the William Thomas Terminal at Meadows Field Airport
in Bakersfield and a third is on display in the Mojave Spaceport's Legacy Park alongside the original Roton Atmospheric Test Vehicle.
. The successor ship names SpaceShipTwo and White Knight Two
. The name of the joint venture between Virgin Group
and Scaled Composites is called The Spaceship Company
, with a goal of carrying passengers under the name Virgin Galactic
spaceliner with an initial target of a commercial fleet of five spacecraft.
In August 2005, Virgin Galactic stated that if the upcoming suborbital service with SpaceShipTwo is successful, the follow-up will be known as SpaceShipThree.
SpaceShipOne was a suborbital air-launched
Air launch
Air launching is the practice of dropping a parasite aircraft, rocket, or missile from a mothership. The parasite aircraft or missile is usually tucked under the wing of the larger mothership and then "dropped" from underneath the wing while in flight...
spaceplane
Spaceplane
A spaceplane is a vehicle that operates as an aircraft in Earth's atmosphere, as well as a spacecraft when it is in space. It combines features of an aircraft and a spacecraft, which can be thought of as an aircraft that can endure and maneuver in the vacuum of space or likewise a spacecraft that...
that completed the first manned
Human spaceflight
Human spaceflight is spaceflight with humans on the spacecraft. When a spacecraft is manned, it can be piloted directly, as opposed to machine or robotic space probes and remotely-controlled satellites....
private spaceflight
Private spaceflight
Private spaceflight is flight above Earth altitude conducted by and paid for by an entity other than a government. In the early decades of the Space Age, the government space agencies of the Soviet Union and United States pioneered space technology augmented by collaboration with affiliated design...
in 2004. That same year, it won the US$10 million Ansari X Prize
Ansari X Prize
The Ansari X Prize was a space competition in which the X Prize Foundation offered a US$10,000,000 prize for the first non-government organization to launch a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice within two weeks...
and was immediately retired from active service. Its mothership was named "White Knight". Both craft were developed and flown by Mojave Aerospace Ventures
Mojave Aerospace Ventures
Mojave Aerospace Ventures is a company founded by Paul Allen and Burt Rutan to handle the commercial spinoffs from the Tier One project. It owns the intellectual property arising from Tier One, and it is in turn owned by Paul Allen and Burt Rutan...
, which was a joint venture between Paul Allen
Paul Allen
Paul Gardner Allen is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. Allen co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates...
and Scaled Composites
Scaled Composites
Scaled Composites is an aerospace company founded by Burt Rutan and currently owned by Northrop Grumman that is located at the Mojave Spaceport, Mojave, California, United States...
, Burt Rutan
Burt Rutan
Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan is an American aerospace engineer noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, energy-efficient aircraft...
's aviation company. Allen provided the funding of approximately US$25 million.
Rutan has indicated that ideas about the project began as early as 1994 and the full-time development cycle time to the 2004 accomplishments was about three years. The vehicle first achieved supersonic flight on December 17, 2003, which was also the one-hundredth anniversary of the Wright Brothers
Wright brothers
The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur , were two Americans credited with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, on December 17, 1903...
' historic first powered flight. SpaceShipOne's first official spaceflight, known as flight 15P
SpaceShipOne flight 15P
-Flight profile:All times are in PDT, which is seven hours behind UTC. This was the local civil time at the spaceport on the day of the flight. All measurements are first stated in the U.S...
, was piloted by Mike Melvill
Mike Melvill
Michael Winston "Mike" Melvill is one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the experimental spaceplane developed by Scaled Composites. Melvill piloted SpaceShipOne on its first flight past the edge of space, flight 15P on June 21, 2004, thus becoming the first commercial astronaut and the 434th...
. A few days before that flight, the Mojave Air and Space Port was licensed as the USA's first commercial spaceport. A few hours after that flight, Melvill became the first licensed U.S. commercial astronaut
Commercial Astronaut
A commercial astronaut is a person trained to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a privately funded spacecraft.-Criteria:The criteria for determining who has achieved human spaceflight vary. The FAI defines spaceflight as any flight over of altitude...
. The overall project name was "Tier One" which has evolved into Tier 1b
Tier 1b
Tier 1b is Burt Rutan's nickname for the suborbital tourist human spaceflight platform in development at Scaled Composites with Mojave Aerospace Ventures by The Spaceship Company for Virgin Galactic...
with a goal of taking a successor ship's first passengers into space within the next few years.
Development and winning the X Prize
SpaceShipOne was developed by Mojave Aerospace Ventures (a joint venture between Paul AllenPaul Allen
Paul Gardner Allen is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. Allen co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates...
and Scaled Composites
Scaled Composites
Scaled Composites is an aerospace company founded by Burt Rutan and currently owned by Northrop Grumman that is located at the Mojave Spaceport, Mojave, California, United States...
, Burt Rutan
Burt Rutan
Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan is an American aerospace engineer noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, energy-efficient aircraft...
's aviation company, in their Tier One
Tier One
Tier One is Scaled Composites' program of suborbital human spaceflight using the reusable spacecraft SpaceShipOne and its launcher White Knight. The craft was designed by Burt Rutan, and the project is funded 20 million US Dollars by Paul Allen...
program), without government funding. On June 21, 2004, it made the first privately funded human spaceflight. On October 4, it won the US$10 million Ansari X Prize
Ansari X Prize
The Ansari X Prize was a space competition in which the X Prize Foundation offered a US$10,000,000 prize for the first non-government organization to launch a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice within two weeks...
, by reaching 100 kilometers in altitude twice in a two-week period with the equivalent of three people on board and with no more than ten percent of the non-fuel weight of the spacecraft replaced between flights. Development costs were estimated to be US$25 million, funded completely by Paul Allen
Paul Allen
Paul Gardner Allen is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. Allen co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates...
.
During its test programme, SpaceShipOne set a number of important "firsts", including first privately funded aircraft to exceed Mach 2 and Mach 3, first privately funded manned spacecraft to exceed 100km altitude
Karman line
The Kármán line lies at an altitude of above the Earth's sea level, and is commonly used to define the boundary between the Earth's atmosphere and outer space...
, and first privately funded reusable manned spacecraft.
SpaceShipOne is an experimental air-launched
Air launch
Air launching is the practice of dropping a parasite aircraft, rocket, or missile from a mothership. The parasite aircraft or missile is usually tucked under the wing of the larger mothership and then "dropped" from underneath the wing while in flight...
rocket-powered aircraft with suborbital flight capability that uses a hybrid rocket
Hybrid rocket
A hybrid rocket is a rocket with a rocket motor which uses propellants in two different states of matter - one solid and the other either gas or liquid. The Hybrid rocket concept can be traced back at least 75 years....
motor. The design features a unique "feathering" atmospheric reentry
Atmospheric reentry
Atmospheric entry is the movement of human-made or natural objects as they enter the atmosphere of a celestial body from outer space—in the case of Earth from an altitude above the Kármán Line,...
system where the rear half of the wing and the twin tail
Twin tail
A twin tail is a specific type of vertical stabilizer arrangement found on the empennage of some aircraft. Two vertical stabilizers — often smaller on their own than a single conventional tail would be — are mounted at the outside of the aircraft's horizontal stabilizer...
booms folded upward along a hinge running the length of the wing; this increased drag
Drag (physics)
In fluid dynamics, drag refers to forces which act on a solid object in the direction of the relative fluid flow velocity...
while remaining stable. The achievements of SpaceShipOne are more comparable to the X-15
North American X-15
The North American X-15 rocket-powered aircraft/spaceplane was part of the X-series of experimental aircraft, initiated with the Bell X-1, that were made for the USAAF/USAF, NACA/NASA, and the USN. The X-15 set speed and altitude records in the early 1960s, reaching the edge of outer space and...
than orbiting spacecraft like the Space Shuttle
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons...
. Accelerating a spacecraft to orbital speed
Orbital speed
The orbital speed of a body, generally a planet, a natural satellite, an artificial satellite, or a multiple star, is the speed at which it orbits around the barycenter of a system, usually around a more massive body...
requires more than 60 times as much energy as accelerating it to Mach 3.
SpaceShipOne is registered
Aircraft registration
An aircraft registration is a unique alphanumeric string that identifies a civil aircraft, in similar fashion to a licence plate on an automobile...
with the FAA
Federal Aviation Administration
The Federal Aviation Administration is the national aviation authority of the United States. An agency of the United States Department of Transportation, it has authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the U.S...
as . N is the prefix for US-registered aircraft; 328KF was chosen by Scaled Composites to stand for 328 K (abbreviation for 1000) feet (about 100 kilometers
1 E5 m
A length of 100 kilometers , as a rough amount, is relatively common in measurements on Earth and for some astronomical objects.It is the altitude at which the FAI defines spaceflight to begin....
), the officially designated edge of space
Karman line
The Kármán line lies at an altitude of above the Earth's sea level, and is commonly used to define the boundary between the Earth's atmosphere and outer space...
. The original choice of registry number, N100KM, was already taken. N328KF is registered as a glider
Glider aircraft
Glider aircraft are heavier-than-air craft that are supported in flight by the dynamic reaction of the air against their lifting surfaces, and whose free flight does not depend on an engine. Mostly these types of aircraft are intended for routine operation without engines, though engine failure can...
, reflecting the fact that most of its independent flight is unpowered.
SpaceShipOne's first flight, 01C, was an unmanned captive flight test
Flight test
Flight test is a branch of aeronautical engineering that develops and gathers data during flight of an aircraft and then analyzes the data to evaluate the flight characteristics of the aircraft and validate its design, including safety aspects...
on May 20, 2003. Glide tests followed, starting with flight 03G on August 7, 2003. Its first powered flight, flight 11P
SpaceShipOne flight 11P
Flight 11P of SpaceShipOne was its eighth independent flight, its first powered flight, and the first privately-funded manned flight to reach supersonic speeds. It occurred on December 17, 2003....
, was made on December 17, 2003, the 100th anniversary of the first powered flight
Wright Flyer
The Wright Flyer was the first powered aircraft, designed and built by the Wright brothers. They flew it four times on December 17, 1903 near the Kill Devil Hills, about four miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, U.S.The U.S...
.
On April 1, 2004, Scaled Composites received the first license for sub-orbital rocket flights to be issued by the US Office of Commercial Space Transportation
Office of Commercial Space Transportation
The Office of Commercial Space Transportation is the branch of the United States Federal Aviation Administration that approves any commercial rocket launch operations—that is, any launches that are not classified as model, amateur, or "by and for the government."-Overview:Under...
. This license permitted the company to conduct powered test flights over the course of one year. On June 17, 2004, Mojave Airport reclassified itself (part-time) as the Mojave Spaceport
Mojave Spaceport
thumb|right|235px|A retired [[Boeing 767-200]] that flew for [[Ansett Australia]] being cut open for scrap at Mojave AirportThe Mojave Air and Space Port , also known as the Civilian Aerospace Test Center, is located in Mojave, California, at an elevation of...
.
Flight 15P
SpaceShipOne flight 15P
-Flight profile:All times are in PDT, which is seven hours behind UTC. This was the local civil time at the spaceport on the day of the flight. All measurements are first stated in the U.S...
on June 21, 2004, was SpaceShipOne's first spaceflight
Spaceflight
Spaceflight is the act of travelling into or through outer space. Spaceflight can occur with spacecraft which may, or may not, have humans on board. Examples of human spaceflight include the Russian Soyuz program, the U.S. Space shuttle program, as well as the ongoing International Space Station...
, and the first privately funded human spaceflight. There were a few control issues, but these were resolved prior to the Ansari X PRIZE flights that followed, with flight 17P
SpaceShipOne flight 17P
Flight 17P of SpaceShipOne was a spaceflight in the Tier One program that took place on October 4, 2004. It was the second competitive flight in the Ansari X Prize competition to demonstrate a non-governmental reusable manned spacecraft, and is hence also referred to as the X2 flight...
on October 4, 2004, winning the prize.
The SpaceShipOne Team was awarded the Space Achievement Award by the Space Foundation
Space Foundation
The Space Foundation is a nonprofit organization that supports the global space industry through information and education programs. It is a resource for the entire space community - industry, national security organizations, civil space agencies, private space companies and the military around the...
in 2005.
Flights
In the table below, the "top speed" reported is the Mach number
Mach number
Mach number is the speed of an object moving through air, or any other fluid substance, divided by the speed of sound as it is in that substance for its particular physical conditions, including those of temperature and pressure...
at burn-out (the end of the rocket burn). This is not an absolute speed.
| Flight | Date | Top speed | Altitude | Duration | Pilot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01C | May 20, 2003 | Mach 0.53 | 14.63 km | 1 h 48 min | unmanned |
| 02C | July 29, 2003 | 14 km | 2 h 06 min | Mike Melvill Mike Melvill Michael Winston "Mike" Melvill is one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the experimental spaceplane developed by Scaled Composites. Melvill piloted SpaceShipOne on its first flight past the edge of space, flight 15P on June 21, 2004, thus becoming the first commercial astronaut and the 434th... |
|
| 03G | August 7, 2003 | 278 km/h | 14.33 km | 19 min 00 s | Mike Melvill Mike Melvill Michael Winston "Mike" Melvill is one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the experimental spaceplane developed by Scaled Composites. Melvill piloted SpaceShipOne on its first flight past the edge of space, flight 15P on June 21, 2004, thus becoming the first commercial astronaut and the 434th... |
| 04GC | August 27, 2003 | 370 km/h | 14 km | 1 h 06 min | Mike Melvill Mike Melvill Michael Winston "Mike" Melvill is one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the experimental spaceplane developed by Scaled Composites. Melvill piloted SpaceShipOne on its first flight past the edge of space, flight 15P on June 21, 2004, thus becoming the first commercial astronaut and the 434th... |
| 05G | August 27, 2003 | 370 km/h | 14.69 km | 10 min 30 s | Mike Melvill Mike Melvill Michael Winston "Mike" Melvill is one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the experimental spaceplane developed by Scaled Composites. Melvill piloted SpaceShipOne on its first flight past the edge of space, flight 15P on June 21, 2004, thus becoming the first commercial astronaut and the 434th... |
| 06G | September 23, 2003 | 213 km/h | 14.26 km | 12 min 15 s | Mike Melvill Mike Melvill Michael Winston "Mike" Melvill is one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the experimental spaceplane developed by Scaled Composites. Melvill piloted SpaceShipOne on its first flight past the edge of space, flight 15P on June 21, 2004, thus becoming the first commercial astronaut and the 434th... |
| 07G | October 17, 2003 | 241 km/h | 14.08 km | 17 min 49 s | Mike Melvill Mike Melvill Michael Winston "Mike" Melvill is one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the experimental spaceplane developed by Scaled Composites. Melvill piloted SpaceShipOne on its first flight past the edge of space, flight 15P on June 21, 2004, thus becoming the first commercial astronaut and the 434th... |
| 08G | November 14, 2003 | 213 km/h | 14.42 km | 19 min 55 s | Peter Siebold Peter Siebold Peter Siebold is a member of the Scaled Composites astronaut team and was one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the experimental spaceplane developed by Scaled Composites... |
| 09G | November 19, 2003 | 213 km/h | 14.72 km | 12 min 25 s | Mike Melvill Mike Melvill Michael Winston "Mike" Melvill is one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the experimental spaceplane developed by Scaled Composites. Melvill piloted SpaceShipOne on its first flight past the edge of space, flight 15P on June 21, 2004, thus becoming the first commercial astronaut and the 434th... |
| 10G | December 4, 2003 | 213 km/h | 14.75 km | 13 min 14 s | Brian Binnie Brian Binnie William Brian Binnie is a former United States Navy officer and is one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the experimental spaceplane developed by Scaled Composites.-History:... |
| 11P SpaceShipOne flight 11P Flight 11P of SpaceShipOne was its eighth independent flight, its first powered flight, and the first privately-funded manned flight to reach supersonic speeds. It occurred on December 17, 2003.... |
December 17, 2003 | Mach 1.2 | 20.67 km | 18 min 10 s | Brian Binnie Brian Binnie William Brian Binnie is a former United States Navy officer and is one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the experimental spaceplane developed by Scaled Composites.-History:... |
| 12G | March 11, 2004 | 232 km/h | 14.78 km | 18 min 30 s | Peter Siebold Peter Siebold Peter Siebold is a member of the Scaled Composites astronaut team and was one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the experimental spaceplane developed by Scaled Composites... |
| 13P SpaceShipOne flight 13P Flight 13P of SpaceShipOne was its second powered flight, which occurred on April 8, 2004. The pilot was Peter Siebold.SpaceShipOne was released from White Knight at an altitude of 45,600 ft . Ignition was delayed by about two minutes to evaluate a shock-induced stall buffet... |
April 8, 2004 | Mach 1.6 | 32.00 km | 16 min 27 s | Peter Siebold Peter Siebold Peter Siebold is a member of the Scaled Composites astronaut team and was one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the experimental spaceplane developed by Scaled Composites... |
| 14P SpaceShipOne flight 14P Flight 14P of SpaceShipOne was its third powered flight, which occurred on May 13, 2004. The pilot was Mike Melvill.SpaceShipOne was released from White Knight at an altitude of 46,000 feet and a speed of 120 knots . After ten seconds the rocket was lit, for a 55 second burn.At burn-out the... |
May 13, 2004 | Mach 2.5 | 64.43 km | 20 min 44 s | Mike Melvill Mike Melvill Michael Winston "Mike" Melvill is one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the experimental spaceplane developed by Scaled Composites. Melvill piloted SpaceShipOne on its first flight past the edge of space, flight 15P on June 21, 2004, thus becoming the first commercial astronaut and the 434th... |
| 15P SpaceShipOne flight 15P -Flight profile:All times are in PDT, which is seven hours behind UTC. This was the local civil time at the spaceport on the day of the flight. All measurements are first stated in the U.S... |
June 21, 2004 | Mach 2.9 | 100.124 km | 24 min 05 s | Mike Melvill Mike Melvill Michael Winston "Mike" Melvill is one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the experimental spaceplane developed by Scaled Composites. Melvill piloted SpaceShipOne on its first flight past the edge of space, flight 15P on June 21, 2004, thus becoming the first commercial astronaut and the 434th... |
| 16P SpaceShipOne flight 16P Flight 16P of SpaceShipOne was a spaceflight in the Tier One program that took place on September 29, 2004. It was the first competitive flight in the Ansari X PRIZE competition to demonstrate a non-governmental reusable manned spacecraft, and is hence also referred to as the X1 flight... |
September 29, 2004 | Mach 2.92 | 102.93 km | 24 min 11 s | Mike Melvill Mike Melvill Michael Winston "Mike" Melvill is one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the experimental spaceplane developed by Scaled Composites. Melvill piloted SpaceShipOne on its first flight past the edge of space, flight 15P on June 21, 2004, thus becoming the first commercial astronaut and the 434th... |
| 17P SpaceShipOne flight 17P Flight 17P of SpaceShipOne was a spaceflight in the Tier One program that took place on October 4, 2004. It was the second competitive flight in the Ansari X Prize competition to demonstrate a non-governmental reusable manned spacecraft, and is hence also referred to as the X2 flight... |
October 4, 2004 | Mach 3.09 | 112.014 km | 23 min 56 s | Brian Binnie Brian Binnie William Brian Binnie is a former United States Navy officer and is one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the experimental spaceplane developed by Scaled Composites.-History:... |
The flights were accompanied by two chase plane
Chase plane
A chase plane is an aircraft that "chases" another aircraft, a spacecraft or a rocket during flight. Safety can be one function of a chase plane; others are to photo or video the target vehicle, or to collect engineering data from it...
s; an Extra 300 owned and flown by Chuck Coleman, and a Beechcraft Starship
Beechcraft Starship
The Beechcraft Starship is a twin-turboprop six- to eight-passenger pressurized business aircraft produced by Beech Aircraft Corporation .-Development:...
.
Astronauts
The SpaceShipOne pilots came from a variety of aerospaceAerospace
Aerospace comprises the atmosphere of Earth and surrounding space. Typically the term is used to refer to the industry that researches, designs, manufactures, operates, and maintains vehicles moving through air and space...
backgrounds. Mike Melvill
Mike Melvill
Michael Winston "Mike" Melvill is one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the experimental spaceplane developed by Scaled Composites. Melvill piloted SpaceShipOne on its first flight past the edge of space, flight 15P on June 21, 2004, thus becoming the first commercial astronaut and the 434th...
is a test pilot
Test pilot
A test pilot is an aviator who flies new and modified aircraft in specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques or FTTs, allowing the results to be measured and the design to be evaluated....
, Brian Binnie
Brian Binnie
William Brian Binnie is a former United States Navy officer and is one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the experimental spaceplane developed by Scaled Composites.-History:...
is a former Navy pilot, and Doug Shane
Doug Shane
Douglas B. Shane is an American test pilot and has trained as a commercial astronaut. He was a member of the Scaled Composites astronaut team and one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the experimental spaceplane developed by Scaled Composites...
and Peter Siebold
Peter Siebold
Peter Siebold is a member of the Scaled Composites astronaut team and was one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the experimental spaceplane developed by Scaled Composites...
are engineers at Scaled Composites. They qualified to fly SpaceShipOne by training on the Tier One flight simulator and in White Knight and other Scaled Composites aircraft.
Retirement
SpaceShipOne's spaceflights were watched by large crowds at Mojave Spaceport. A fourth suborbital flight, Flight 18P, was originally scheduled for October 13, 2004. However, Burt Rutan decided not to risk damage to the historic craft, and cancelled it and all future flights.On July 25, 2005 SpaceShipOne was taken to the Oshkosh Airshow
Oshkosh Airshow
EAA AirVenture Oshkosh is America's largest annual gathering of aviation enthusiasts held each summer at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, United States....
in Oshkosh
Oshkosh, Wisconsin
As of the census of 2000, there were 62,916 people, 24,082 households, and 13,654 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,662.2 people per square mile . There were 25,420 housing units at an average density of 1,075.6 per square mile...
, Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
. After the airshow, Mike Melvill and crew flew the White Knight, carrying SpaceShipOne, to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, where Melvill spoke to a group of about 300 military and civilian personnel. Later in the evening, Melvill gave a presentation at the Dayton Engineers Club, entitled "Some Experiments in Space Flight", in honor of Wilbur Wright
Wright brothers
The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur , were two Americans credited with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, on December 17, 1903...
's now-famous presentation to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1901 entitled "Some Experiments in Flight." The White Knight then transported SpaceShipOne to the Smithsonian Institution's
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
National Air and Space Museum
National Air and Space Museum
The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution holds the largest collection of historic aircraft and spacecraft in the world. It was established in 1976. Located in Washington, D.C., United States, it is a center for research into the history and science of aviation and...
to be put on display. It was unveiled on Wednesday October 5, 2005 in the Milestones of Flight gallery and is now on display to the public in the main atrium between the Spirit of St. Louis
Spirit of St. Louis
The Spirit of St. Louis is the custom-built, single engine, single-seat monoplane that was flown solo by Charles Lindbergh on May 20–21, 1927, on the first non-stop flight from New York to Paris for which Lindbergh won the $25,000 Orteig Prize.Lindbergh took off in the Spirit from Roosevelt...
and the Bell X-1
Bell X-1
The Bell X-1, originally designated XS-1, was a joint NACA-U.S. Army/US Air Force supersonic research project built by Bell Aircraft. Conceived in 1944 and designed and built over 1945, it eventually reached nearly 1,000 mph in 1948...
.
SpaceShipOne became a popular model rocket
Model rocket
A model rocket is a small rocket that is commonly advertised as being able to be launched by anybody, to, in general, low altitudes and recovered by a variety of means....
in 2004. Estes Industries
Estes Industries
Estes Industries is a company based in Penrose, Colorado, USA that designs and builds model rocket and model aircraft engines and kits. They were the best known model rocket company during the "golden age of rocketry" in the 1970s and early 1980s, competing primarily with Centuri Engineering and a...
currently offers several flying model rockets of SpaceShipOne. A piece of SpaceShipOne's carbon fiber
Carbon fiber
Carbon fiber, alternatively graphite fiber, carbon graphite or CF, is a material consisting of fibers about 5–10 μm in diameter and composed mostly of carbon atoms. The carbon atoms are bonded together in crystals that are more or less aligned parallel to the long axis of the fiber...
material was launched aboard the New Horizons
New Horizons
New Horizons is a NASA robotic spacecraft mission currently en route to the dwarf planet Pluto. It is expected to be the first spacecraft to fly by and study Pluto and its moons, Charon, Nix, Hydra and S/2011 P 1. Its estimated arrival date at the Pluto-Charon system is July 14th, 2015...
mission to Pluto
Pluto
Pluto, formal designation 134340 Pluto, is the second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the tenth-most-massive body observed directly orbiting the Sun...
in 2006.
Replica
A year after its appearance in the Oshkosh Airventure airshow, the Experimental Aircraft AssociationExperimental Aircraft Association
The Experimental Aircraft Association is an international organization of aviation enthusiasts based in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Since its inception it has grown internationally with over 160,000 members and about 1,000 chapters worldwide....
featured a full-scale replica of the spacecraft in a wing of its museum
EAA AirVenture Museum
The EAA AirVenture Museum is a museum dedicated to the preservation and display of historical and experimental aircraft located in Oshkosh, Wisconsin adjacent to the Wittman Regional Airport. Paul Poberezny proposed the idea of the EAA Air Museum-Air Education center in August 1958. The current...
which housed other creations of Burt Rutan. Using the same fiberglass molds as the original, it was so exact in its replication - despite not having any doors or interior - that it was dubbed "Serial 2 Scaled" by Scaled Composites
Scaled Composites
Scaled Composites is an aerospace company founded by Burt Rutan and currently owned by Northrop Grumman that is located at the Mojave Spaceport, Mojave, California, United States...
. Each and every painstaking detail in its appearance was matched, down to the N328KF registration number on its fuselage. It is so precise that, during a video presentation held every hour in the museum, it can display the two different modes of its 'feathering' ability, albeit through the aid of pulleys and wires (there is no machinery in the replica).
Another full-scale replica of SpaceShipOne hangs in the rotunda of the William Thomas Terminal at Meadows Field Airport
Meadows Field Airport
Meadows Field is the primary airport serving the Greater Bakersfield metropolitan area, and one of two international airports in the San Joaquin Valley. Also known as Kern County Airport #1, it is located in Oildale, California, approximately northwest of Downtown Bakersfield. The airport is owned...
in Bakersfield and a third is on display in the Mojave Spaceport's Legacy Park alongside the original Roton Atmospheric Test Vehicle.
Subsequent spacecraft
With the success of Tier One meeting its project goals, a successor project started in 2004 was Tier 1bTier 1b
Tier 1b is Burt Rutan's nickname for the suborbital tourist human spaceflight platform in development at Scaled Composites with Mojave Aerospace Ventures by The Spaceship Company for Virgin Galactic...
. The successor ship names SpaceShipTwo and White Knight Two
Scaled Composites White Knight Two
The Scaled Composites Model 348 White Knight Two is a jet-powered cargo aircraft which will be used to launch the SpaceShipTwo spacecraft. It is being developed by Scaled Composites as the first stage of Tier 1b, a two-stage to suborbital-space manned launch system...
. The name of the joint venture between Virgin Group
Virgin Group
Virgin Group Limited is a British branded venture capital conglomerate organisation founded by business tycoon Richard Branson. The core business areas are travel, entertainment and lifestyle. Virgin Group's date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by Companies House, who class it as a holding...
and Scaled Composites is called The Spaceship Company
The Spaceship Company
The Spaceship Company is a spacecraft manufacturing company formed by Burt Rutan and Richard Branson in mid-2005, jointly owned by Virgin Group and Scaled Composites, which will own the technology created by Scaled for Virgin Galactic's Virgin SpaceShip program...
, with a goal of carrying passengers under the name Virgin Galactic
Virgin Galactic
Virgin Galactic is a company within Richard Branson's Virgin Group which plans to provide sub-orbital spaceflights to the paying public, along with suborbital space science missions and orbital launches of small satellites...
spaceliner with an initial target of a commercial fleet of five spacecraft.
In August 2005, Virgin Galactic stated that if the upcoming suborbital service with SpaceShipTwo is successful, the follow-up will be known as SpaceShipThree.
Specifications
See also
- List of spaceflights (2004)
- Mojave Magic: A Turtle's Eye View of SpaceShipOneMojave Magic: A Turtle's Eye View of SpaceShipOneMojave Magic: A Turtle's Eye View of SpaceShipOne, shot on location at the remote Mojave Airport, documents the historic flights of SpaceShipOne, including the first privately-funded human spaceflight on June 21, 2004 and the two subsequent flights on September 29 and October 4, 2004 that won the...
- X-15