At a post-landing press briefing, the 63-year old Melvill described a series of technical snags that haunted his record-setting flight. Right after motor ignition, the pilot said the craft rolled 90 degrees to the left, then 90 degrees to the right. "It has never ever done that before," he explained.
Technical snags
Melvill said he leveled out the rocketship, but then experienced trim problems during his climb outside the Earths atmosphere -- an issue that he dealt with as he made his way to a desert runway landing.
During SpaceShipOnes climb, Melvill said he also heard a surprising bang, coming from the engine area where a fairing holding the crafts nozzle buckled.
While an altitude of 360,000 feet was targeted, the rocket ship fell short of that mark, attaining 328,491 feet, reported Burt Rutan, head of the Scaled Composites team that designed and built the vehicle.
"It was not a smooth flight from the standpoint of trajectory," Rutan reported at the press briefing. "This was not a perfect flight," he said, although the overall performance of the rocketship was right on the money.
Rutan said the anomaly Melvill experienced was "the most serious flight safety systems problem that weve had in the entire program."
Back up hardware on SpaceShipOne worked and the craft made a beautiful landing, Rutan said. "Even though we really didnt go where we were planning to go todaymakes me feel very good because I felt its important to put those kind of backup systems inand they worked," he added.
"The backup saved the day," Melvill noted.
Free-floating chocolates
Rutan could not discount the possibility that another flight might be needed before committing pilot and hardware to fly back-to-back flights within a two-week period to win the $10 million Ansari X Prize.
How long the vehicles hybrid rocket motor operated is not clear, with data from the flight still being assessed. Whether the rocket motor was shut down by Melvill or stopped on its own is not known, Rutan said.
Melvill said his rocket flight was all very exciting. "I wasnt scarednot afraid all the way up. But I was a little afraid on the way down."
At apogee -- the highest point of the rocket ships flight -- Melvill pulled out of a flight suit pocket handfuls of chocolate-coated candies. He marveled at them as they floated free in the cockpit.
Awesome view
As SpaceShipOne arched over and headed toward Earth, Melvill said he began to hear sounds. "The noises you hear are like somebody talking to you very sharply. You begin to believe, wow, should I really be doing this?"
"The sky was jet black above," Melvill said. "The Earth is so beautiful ... It was like nothing Ive ever seen before. You really do get the feeling that youve touched the face of God when you do something like this, believe me."
Touching down at the Mojave Airport, the SpaceShipOne made a three-point landing, on two wheels, and nose-mounted skid.
"I was so glad to get it back down and make a decent landing that didnt break anything," Melvill said. "I had to land with what I had," he added.
Upon touchdown and climbing out of the SpaceShipOnes cockpit, Melvill was greeted by Apollo moonwalker, Buzz Aldrin.
"It meant a lot," Melvill said. "To have him come up and shake my hand and congratulate me and tell me that Ive joined the clubthat was serious stuff."
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