MOJAVE,
CALIFORNIA - SpaceShipOne sits in a hangar here at the Mojave Spaceport, no
worse the wear from its first shot at bagging the Ansari X Prize earlier this
week.
Late yesterday, the official thumb's up was given by the
Mojave Aerospace Ventures team, led by Burt Rutan, for the second flight of the
rocketplane to claim the cash purse on October 4.
That day marks the 47th anniversary of the former
Soviet's
Union's launch of Sputnik 1 -- the first artificial
satellite to circle the Earth and the event that triggered the space race and
the birth of NASA. Sean O'Keefe, NASA's current chief administrator, was among those gathered
to see SpaceShipOne's attempt at the Ansari X Prize.
Asked by SPACE.com
if there are any take home messages that come from
watching the privately financed SpaceShipOne plow its way skyward, particularly
when contrasted to the large investments made in the NASA space shuttle
program, O'Keefe responded:
"You bet. It's the same signal and the same chapter we've
seen over the course of every major development. You've got to invest the time
and the effort in order to get the technology breakthrough. That then opens up
the opportunity for a whole new set of market challenges that reduce
cost...making things more accessible," he said.
"It's how commercial aviation began. It's how everything
else that has developed over time. And as a consequence of investment upfront
to break down those technology barriers...that then opens up routine
accessibility. That is what we're seeing playing out in this new opening
chapter of spaceflight," O'Keefe said.
Commercial
services
O'Keefe explained that NASA's approach is to engage in work
that nobody else does. Space agency efforts are focused on working through
technology barriers and challenges that prohibit or limit further exploration.
"We open up those opportunities...and then progressively turn
over those activities that are certainly possible for enterprise to engage in,"
O'Keefe said.
For example, O'Keefe pointed to the needs of the
International Space Station program for logistics and routine supply.
"We are now actively pursuing how we find commercial
services that can fill that roll. That's a routine, repetitive kind of
challenge that, frankly, we know how to do, but we do it in a way that,
frankly, you'd rather expend that effort and energy and resource towards
breaking down those new technology barriers that limit you from further,
broader exploration," O'Keefe said.
The real challenge in management and leadership, O'Keefe
concluded, is to take the extraordinary technical skill, engineering and
scientific talent, "and always keep it vectored toward the new challenges,
rather than continuing to buff the rock they already know."
Space
is not passe
NASA's Bill Reedy, Associate Administrator for Space
Operations, was also on hand at SpaceShipOne's X1 flight. He called the
movement of the private sector into human spaceflight as "inevitable."
"It's fantastic. I think it kind of blunts the notion held
by some that nobody's interested in space...that space is passe," Reedy said. The
flights of SpaceShipOne "unleashes what I think is a real pent-up demand and
enthusiasm," he said.
Regarding SpaceShipOne pilot, Mike Melvill and his talents,
Reedy told SPACE.com: "I'm so
envious...that's all I can say...of anybody that goes out and rings out a new ship.
As a test pilot, I've got nothing but utmost respect for him and anybody that
straps on a new airplane."
Pushing
the envelope
"I think this is great stuff," said NASA's Michael
Kostelnik, Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Station and Shuttle, also
attending SpaceShipOne's flight.
"I'm a test pilot myself," said Kostelnik, a retired Air
Force Major General, wearing a flight jacket and aviator glasses.
"When you're in that business and you are professionally
trained for it, you really understand what the risks are. This is what test
people do. They push the envelope," Kostelnik said. "Certainly with a designer
like Burt Rutan, with all the kind of things that he's done...if they didn't
think they could pull it off, Mike Melvill wouldn't be sitting in that seat,"
he added.
"Test pilots are not the risk takers people think. They do
incredible things, but they expect to come back," Kostelnik said.
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