A private
team of Canadian rocketeers is still plowing ahead to ready its spacecraft for
flight, apparently unfazed by looming launch license and insurance deadlines that
may have to be extended should the rocket not fly this month.
Brian
Feeney, leader of the GoldenPalace.com/da Vinci Project, said an approaching
Nov. 1 flight deadline for his group's space shot - and winter weather at the
intended launch site - are not mission-ending obstacles for his Toronto-based
team.
"I am not
concerned about the launch license date," Feeney told SPACE.com. "Our objective is to get the first private Canadian into
space."
Feeney had
hoped to make two launches this month to compete the $10 million Ansari X
Prize competition, a private suborbital spaceflight competition among more
than two dozen teams. The contest was won on Oct. 4, when a spacecraft SpaceShipOne
built by aviation pioneer Burt Rutan made its second
successful X Prize flight.
On Oct. 1,
the Canadian transportation agency Transport Canada announced
that its Launch Safety Office had issued a month-long launch license for the da
Vinci Project's Wild Fire Mark VI spacecraft. That license ran from Oct. 2 to
Nov. 1, which is rapidly drawing near, and Feeney's team originally planned to
stage their first flight from the local airport of Kindersley, Saskatchewan on
Oct. 2. The launch has been on hold
since Sept. 23.
But a
confident Feeney said the official license dates, which cleared Wild Fire for
two space launches within 30 days, were based on the availability of his team's
flight insurance.
"The launch
window would have been longer if the insurance had run longer," he said, adding
that if for any reason his team members need to extend their launch window,
they can discuss it with their insurers and then submit an amended application
to Transport Canada.
Under their
current flight plan, Feeney and his team will launch Wild Fire using a large
helium balloon with Feeney himself at the helm. The balloon is expected to
carry Wild Fire and Feeney to an altitude of about 80,000 feet (24,384 meters),
where the manned rocket is designed to separate and ignite its hybrid rocket
engine. In total, Feeney should experience about three minutes of suborbital
spaceflight before reentering the Earth's atmosphere and parachuting toward his
targeted landing zone near Elrose, Saskatchewan - about 76 miles (122
kilometers) from Kindersley.
"Basically
as long as the team keeps to the same requirements as in their initial launch
application, that's fine," Transport Canada spokeswoman Lucie Vignola told SPACE.com. "They will just have to show
proof of insurance from Nov. 1 on."
Chilly weather
Feeney also
addressed how winter weather could affect his launch date.
A small
town of about 5,000 people, Kindersley received about five inches of snow last
weekend according to local reports from residents. Accuweather.com forecasts
for the next 10 days include frigid weather in the single digits Celsius and at
least two separate days with snowfall.
"The only thing
the weather does is drop snow," Feeney said, adding that should snow cover the
launch site, it would cleared using large rolling vehicles used akin to those
used by local farmers.
A heated tent
over Wild Fire should protect the rocket from cold temperatures, he added.
Feeney did
say that the wind tends to blow consistently stronger in the winter, but Wild
Fire's early-morning launch plan should take advantage of lighter wind speeds.
"Hell,
we're Canadian," Feeney said of dealing with harsh weather.
In addition
to carrying a few interesting items, including a soccer ball kicked by
professional soccer player David Beckham, an eight-track cassette and a laptop
computer, which Feeney will use to place a bet during his flight for da Vinci
title sponsor GoldenPalace.com, an online casino. The casino is also sending
Cabbage Patch doll likeness of comedian Ellen DeGeneres,
which GoldenPalace.com purchased in an eBay charity auction. Feeney said the
doll is being outfitted with a spacesuit and replica of his own space helmet,
and will eventually be given back to DeGeneres to
raise more funds after its Wild Fire ride.
Local anticipation
Local event
organizers said the bulk of Kindersley remains supportive of the da Vinci
project.
"Certainly,
we can say we're the only community in Canada to have been chosen as a [manned]
spaceport," said Brenda Burton, a member of the Cape Kindersley steering
committee organizing local launch-related activities. "I think the community is
still behind the launch, though like anything it there are some naysayers."
Before the
launch was delayed, Kindersley Chamber of Commerce president Rod Perkins said
the town's 280 hotel rooms were booking up fast and that some local officials -
unsure of how many visitors the launch would attract - had given estimates of
about 10,000 for the day.
"I think we
had everything in place for an Oct. 2 launch," Burton told SPACE.com. "But we went to Plan B, which is to await a new launch
date."
Burton said
the delay has prompted some changes, including the closing of the Cape
Kindersley office in the local mall, which occupied donated space that is now
in use by paying groups. Activities planned at the local event center, an ice
rink, will have to be relocated since the space there is now covered in ice,
she added.
"It makes
it all, I guess a little more of a challenge," Burton said of the local effort,
adding that most facilities and services require just a phone call to
reschedule. "I think we're just looking forward to just having the [da Vinci]
team in town and the atmosphere of having it happen."
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