MOJAVE, CALIFORNIA - The
frightening spin of SpaceShipOne during its trip into space Wednesday was caused
by a known deficiency and at no time led to an out-of-control situation, officials
said today.
The privately built and
financed suborbital vehicle shot to an unofficial altitude record of 63.9 miles
(102.9 kilometers) during a flight that had ground controllers and webcast viewers
worrying for a few tense moments as the craft went into an unexpected series
of rolls.
Assuming the altitude is
verified, SpaceShipOne is one step away from winning $10 million Ansari X Prize,
which will be given to the first team that can send a three-person craft 62
miles (100 kilometers) up within two weeks.
A decision on whether to
attempt the second flight as early as Sunday will be rendered by late Thursday,
officials said during a post-flight press conference.
'Kind of cool'
Roaring straight up through
the sky after release from the White Knight carrier plane, SpaceShipOne began
rolling at the top of its flight, with pilot Mike Melvill at the controls.
"I didn't actually
have any discomfort," he said. "I thought it was kind of cool."
Using the craft's reaction
jets, Melvill was able to tame it for the high-speed plunge back to Earth. He
figures he did about 20 turns, some at high rates.
"It was a fast roll.
And a spectacular view out the window watching the world go around there quickly,
Melvill explained. "I even had time to pick up a still camera and take
some pictures out of the window."
Melvill stressed that the
roll rate was very controllable. "I'm not sure what kicked it off,"
he said. "It probably was something I did." He said that at no time was
the control of SpaceShipOne an issue.
Change of pilot
According to Gregg Maryniak,
Executive Director of the X Prize Foundation, radar data from the neighboring
Edwards Air Force Base tentatively pegged the craft's top altitude at 337,500
feet.
Confirmation of the exact
altitude reached, tying together several sources including an onboard "gold
box," is expected shortly, Maryniak said, but the flight went above the
X Prize qualifying altitude.
Burt Rutan, head of Scaled
Composites, the firm that designed and built the rocketplane, said that Melvill
was not the pilot slated for today's flight.
The planned pilot fell ill
at the same time his wife was giving birth. That unidentified individual felt
he was under too much stress to undertake the flight and give a full 100 percent,
Rutan said.
The pilot change was made
two weeks ago, Rutan said, although Melvill's name was not announced until early
this morning. Melvill flew SpaceShipOne into space the fist time in June, in
a test run for this week's X Prize attempt.
Spin-stabilized roll
The unplanned corkscrew
maneuver Wednesday was characterized as a "spin-stabilized" roll.
Rutan said there's a "known deficiency" in SpaceShipOne that caused
the roll.
Wind that hits an airplane
from the side causes the craft to roll as a corrective technique, Rutan explained.
The same thing applies to SpaceShipOne as it pierces the upper reaches of the
atmosphere, although the rocketship "rolls much too much to correct for
that," he said.
Despite the deficiency,
Rutan said SpaceShipOne is an extremely robust setup. "Any system that
will ever go out there and fly space tourists needs to be 100 times or more
safer than any manned spacecraft that has ever flown."
There is a clear goal in
mind here. Earlier this week, British entrepreneur Richard Branson said
he plans to contract for a modified version of SpaceShipOne to carry paying
customers into space as early as 2007.
"We are extremely confident
that we are going to be able to produce the first space tourism commercial spaceliner
that will start out service with reliability, I believe, significantly better
than the first airlines had when they started to offer service decades ago,"
Rutan said.
Ashes of mother flown
After the flight, a ground
survey of SpaceShipOne's overall health showed that there is nothing to fix
on the vessel, Rutan said.
"You can't believe
how happy I am right now," he said.
Rutan revealed that SpaceShipOne
carried the ashes of his mother, Irene Rutan. She passed away a few years ago.
"I only thought of
doing this last night. We rounded up her ashes...she flew today," Rutan said,
his eyes tearing as he spoke.
"I was very, very proud
to have carried her," Melvill said.
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