As in previous testing, SpaceShipOne was carried skyward to drop altitude by the White Knight mothership.
Test objectives
Other test objectives of the most recent flight included an evaluation of the handling qualities of SpaceShipOne during boost, through transonic and supersonic speed regimes. The crafts reaction control system was also checked out, as was its stability during transonic re-entry. On the ground, test personnel evaluated radar tracking of the rocket plane as it sped to high altitude.
On the April 8 test, SpaceShipOnes powered flight was delayed about two minutes to evaluate pre-release buffeting. After the White Knight decreased its drop altitude a few thousand feet, the SpaceShipOne was set free.
SpaceShipOnes pilot, Peter Siebold, ignited the crafts hybrid rocket motor which then burned for 40 seconds.
"The 40 second rocket boost was smooth with good control. [The] pilot commented that the motor was surprisingly quiet; however the boost was heard by ground observers," a Scaled Composites report explains.
Safe, stable entry
As the rocket plane sped upward, no control flutter or other flight control issues were observed. After burnout of the engine took place, the SpaceShipOnes apogee or high point -- was over 105,000 feet.
SpaceShipOne then converted to a high-drag configuration, accomplished by flipping up the rudder/tail end of the craft. This feature, called "feathering", is designed to put the vehicle into a safe, stable atmospheric entry.
Feather recovery was nominal, with the wing then de-feathered and locked into place by 40,000 feet, Scaled Composites reported. SpaceShipOne handled well during its glide to the ground, and then safely touched down on a Mojave landing strip.
The Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne project is being led by aircraft designer Burt Rutan, who heads the company. A major contractor for the hybrid motor used in the craft is SpaceDev of Poway, California.
Smooth and impressive
In a response to questions from SPACE.com , Rutan said that the flight -- the 13th airborne evaluation of SpaceShipOne, achieved its 40 second burn goal for the hybrid motor. The motor run was "smooth and impressive", he said.
Asked about future tests to further flight-rate the vehicle and lengthen the hybrid motor burn times, Rutan would only say: "We still cannot discuss future flights."
On April 1, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) issued the world's first license for sub-orbital piloted rocket flight to Scaled Composites. The license permits the private company to conduct a sequence of powered flights of SpaceShipOne for a one-year period.
Scaled Composites and its SpaceShipOne design team are hoping to win the X Prize, a high-stakes international race to fly a reusable private vehicle to the edge of space and return safely to Earth.
The X Prize Foundation of St. Louis, Missouri will award $10 million to the first company or organization to launch a vehicle capable of carrying three people to a height of 62.5 miles -- or some 330,000 feet -- return safely to Earth, and repeat the flight with the same vehicle within two weeks. There are twenty-seven contestants representing seven countries that are now registered for the X Prize contest.
To cash in on the X prize, however, the clock is ticking as the $10 million purse expires as of the end of this year.
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