It's one small step for man?

[Dreamer128]

Private spacecraft has blasted off
White Knight carrying SpaceShipOne, the first private manned spacecraft, has successfully blasted off on the first part of its historic space journey.
SpaceShipOne is being carried to 50,000ft (15km), which should take an hour, at which point it will fire its own rockets and head for space.

The craft, built by aviation pioneer Burt Rutan, will aim to reach 100km (62 miles), space's official boundary.

No private craft or civilian pilot has ever been further.

Robert Rice, from Mojave Airport, told the BBC about 3,000 people, including over 500 media crews, have descended on the desert to watch the historic flight.

Mr Rutan and his team from his company, Scaled Composites, hope the flight will take them closer to winning the Ansari X-prize of $10m (£5.7m) which will be awarded to the first non-government, manned flight into space.

Pilot history

The pilot, 62-year-old Scaled Composites vice-president Mike Melvill, is also well on his way to rocketing into the record books as the first civilian to fly a spaceship out of Earth's atmosphere.

Mr Melvill piloted the test flight in May, when it reached 64km (40 miles) to double its last best.

If the mission is a success, SpaceShipOne will attempt the X-prize at a later stage.

To beat 25 other teams in this race, SpaceShipOne must reach 100km twice in two weeks.

On each occasion it will have to fly with a pilot and at least the ballast equivalent of two other people. Monday's launch is a key step towards claiming the prize.

"This will be the first time that any piloted private spaceship ever goes into space, so it's of pivotal importance to the X-Prize Foundation, and it certainly puts Scaled Composite's team front and centre in the public's view as a front-runner," Gregg Maryniak, executive director of the foundation, told the Associate Press.

When the X-prize is won, it could open up the skies to future tourist trips to the edge of space for those bored of the usual beach holiday.

Monday's historic flight is being attempted early in the day (0630 PDT) because it is less likely to be very windy at that time and a lower Sun angle affords a better view.

Rocket burn

After White Knight, carrying SpaceShipOne below it, reaches its launch altitude of 50,000ft (15km), it will unleash SpaceShipOne into the skies.

It will glide very briefly before firing up its rocket for about 80 seconds. It will then blast off to its target height of 100km in a vertical climb at Mach 3 (three times the speed of sound).

When it has reached its target altitude, the vehicle will change its wing configuration to allow for high drag, and will start to fall back towards Earth during which the pilot will be weightless.

At re-entry, the ship's special wing configuration will allow it to glide back down to Earth in about 20 minutes.


Back for more

The craft will escape Earth's atmosphere, but it will not be able to orbit the planet because of the speed it is going.

Going sub-orbital is cheaper and far less risky, but it still means the pilot will have a stunning view of Earth.

Burt Rutan has been widely acclaimed for his pioneering achievements in the field of aviation.

White Knight and SpaceShipOne are thought to be revolutionary in many ways. SpaceShipOne's hybrid engine needs special fuel that is safer, and both White Knight and the ship can be reused.

SpaceShipOne's rocket motor, which was custom-built by SpaceDev of San Diego, burns a solid rubber propellant with liquid nitrous oxide - a liquid version of "laughing gas".

It is not volatile and it is more eco-friendly than other space rocket fuels. Its by-products are water vapour, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen.

The conventional space shuttle's solid rocket boosters burn ammonium perchlorate and aluminium.

(Pictures at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3811881.stm )

Got my fingers Crossed for Burt, if anyone can do it...he's the guy I would put money on.