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A veteran civilian test pilot will be at the controls when SpaceShipOne attempts the first commercial manned space flight on Monday.
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http://www.nbc11.com/news/3440855/detail.html
[COLOR=Red]Originally from Durban, South Africa, Melvill and his wife, Sally(You mean they're not gonna put a precious Mexishit 'immigrant' at the private controls?)[/COLOR] , moved to the United States from England in the 1970s and he is now a U.S. citizen. Melvill has a son, daughter-in-law and four grandchildren.

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http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/science/20040620-1301-privaterocket.html
If SpaceShipOne is successful, designer Burt Rutan and his Scaled Composites development company will use the craft to make a run at the $10 million Ansari X Prize, a formal competition intended to spur commercial development of spaceflight.

White Knight, carrying the rocket plane slung under its belly, was to scheduled for a 6:30 a.m. takeoff, followed by a climb to 50,000 feet, where it would release SpaceShipOne about 7:30 a.m.

SpaceShipOne's pilot, flying solo, would then ignite the rocket and pull up into an 80-second powered climb. After the rocket motor shuts down, the craft is to coast up to a target altitude of 62 miles above the Earth, then re-enter the atmosphere and glide for 15 to 20 minutes to a landing back at Mojave.

Wind or clouds could force a postponement.

SpaceShipOne reached an altitude of 40 miles on a test flight in May.

Rutan's team is one of more than 20 around the world aiming at the X Prize.

To win, a privately financed spacecraft capable of carrying three people must climb to 62 miles and land safely, then repeat the feat within two weeks.

The three-seat requirement demonstrates the capacity for paying customers, and the quick turnaround between flights demonstrates reusability and reliability.

While Monday's flight will not be an X Prize attempt, officials of the X Prize Foundation will be watching closely.

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See all the White people? No niggers, no spics, no sandniggers.

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LOL

Jude Paul Allen (Microsoft) is the moneyman behind Spaceship One, designed by the great Burt Rutan (I have flown in one of his prop driven designs). Rutan is one of the most radical airframe designers around, his designs are art in flight. Singer John Denver died crashing his beloved Rutan into the deck, not the fault of design but I think of his lifelong chemical abuse. Great Idea though, space is the next frontier the White race will conquer after we rid ourselves of the juden.
Cheers

TG

Look at that stuff compared to nasa. Rutan's birds are functional art. This is what science fiction looked like when I was a boy. Produced by the denim army. Beyond cool.

T. Garrett, they mention jew Paul Allen's bankrolling in this piece, but next to nothing- about SA immigrant Melvill's precious immigrant heritage.
the 63-year-old South Africa native

I thought we were supposed to be celebrating diversity here in the Land o' ZOG.

[COLOR=Red]VIDEO of Melvill at site-[/COLOR]
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5261571/
Private rocket ship breaks space barrier'Almost a religious experience,' says history-making pilot

NBC News
Mike Melvill, the world's first private-sector astronaut, holds up a sign made by one of the thousands of spectators who came to witness his achievement. FRE
MSNBC
Updated: 2:35 p.m. ET June 21, 2004 MOJAVE, Calif. - With a triumphant thumbs-up and a broad grin, the pilot of the SpaceShipOne rocket plane celebrated becoming the first private-sector astronaut to steer his ship into space.

"I feel great, I really do!" pilot Mike Melvill exclaimed after emerging from his craft on the tarmac of the Mojave Airport here.

Melvill's exultant comments capped SpaceShipOne's wildest ride since its rollout a year ago. On the way down from a top altitude of at least 62 miles (100 kilometers), the 63-year-old South Africa native experienced 5 G's of acceleration -- more than shuttle astronauts feel during their descent.

Along the way, Melvill and SpaceShipOne's team at Mojave-based Scaled Composites wrote a new page in the aviation history books -- marking an era in private suborbital spaceflight that some hope will open the final frontier to regular tourists.

"It may take many decades," said California millionaire Dennis Tito, who became the first paying space passenger in 2001 when he took an orbital flight on a Russian spacecraft to the international space station. "It may take 50 to 100 years. But it's going to lead to a new industry."



An estimated 11,000 spectators whooped as SpaceShipOne's contrail zoomed almost straight up in the desert sky, and cheered again when Melvill and his ship were rolled past the reviewing stands. Famed aviation designer Burt Rutan, the plane's designer and the head of Scaled Composites, said he was filled with emotion several times during the roughly 90-minute flight.

"I just can't tell you how pleased I am. ... It's the first time that a winged vehicle like this one can have a carefree re-entry" from space, he said.

Melvill, a veteran test pilot who holds several world aviation records, got a taste of the suborbital experience felt in the 1960s by early NASA astronauts and X-15 pilots. He almost gushed over the sight of the curving Earth beneath the blackness of space.

FREE VIDEO


• Wild ride
June 21: Pilot Mike Melvill describes his history-making flight in SpaceShipOne.
NBC News



"Looking at the earth from up there is almost a religious experience," he said.

But the flight wasn't all seriousness: "When I got to the top, I released a bag of M&Ms in the cockpit," he told the crowd from the tarmac. "It was amazing -- the M&Ms were just flying around."

And it wasn't all smooth, either: Melvill said he was surprised by the rocket rush, even though he had reached an altitude of 40 miles during SpaceShipOne's previous flight in May, and he heard a series of booms apparently caused by the buckling of a fairing that was added to the rocket plane's engine nozzle for this record-setting flight.

"Sounds like it was a fairly wild ride," said Dick Rutan, Burt's brother, who set a record of his own in 1986 by flying the Voyager aircraft around the world nonstop without refueling.

The project was funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, a billionaire who says he spent "in excess of $20 million" on SpaceShipOne.

"I had my heart in my throat when I watched this," he said of Monday's flight. "And I hope everybody had a good time."

SpaceShipOne took off from the Mojave Airport, nestled beneath its White Knight carrier plane, at about 6:45 a.m. PT (9:45 a.m. ET), sailing up into the clear desert sky. About an hour later, at an altitude of almost 50,000 feet, the White Knight released its companion craft, and Melvill lit up his rocket engine for a 70-second straight-up blast.

About 15 minutes later, officials announced that Melvill and SpaceShipOne had reached 100 kilometers in altitude, the internationally recognized boundary of outer space. Then SpaceShipOne’s wings folded into a high-drag configuration -– turning the craft into a self-stabilizing shuttlecock. In the final stage of the 25-minute descent, SpaceShipOne straightened its wings again and glided to a landing.

"This is bigger than Kitty Hawk," said one of the onlookers, Tim Reeves, 60, who had driven to Mojave from Los Angeles the night before. "At Kitty Hawk they didn't have visions of 747s dancing in their heads. Here, everybody knows what this portends for private spaceflight."

Another spectator had a simpler perspective. Vinnie Gamte, the 5-year-old son of one of the engineers on SpaceShipOne, said he came out to see "my daddy's rocket ship."

Monday’s test flight represented a step toward winning the $10 million Ansari X Prize, which would be awarded to the first team to send a spaceship carrying a pilot and the weight of two passengers to an altitude of 100 kilometers twice within two weeks.

It's funny, this accomplishment actually makes me teary eyed. It's amazing what we can achieve. Let's hope the Scaled Composites team continues to find success and to stay White.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040622/D83BNHRO0.html

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Test pilot Mike Melvill flies SpaceShipOne over Mojave, Calif., Monday, June 21, 2004, during the first privately financed manned spaceflight. Melvill flew 62 miles above the Earth's surface, according to radar data. He opened a bag of M&M's candies, seen upper left, to demonstrate weightlessness.

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A tailfin of SpaceShipOne is seen over Mojave, Calif., Monday, June 21, 2004, during the first privately financed manned spaceflight. Test pilot Mike Melvill flew the craft 62 miles above the Earth's surface, according to radar data. The curvature of the earth can be seen in the background.

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SpaceShipOne with pilot Michael W. Melvill aboard glides in for a landing after a trip to suborbital space at Mojave, Calif., airport Monday, June 21, 2004. SpaceShipOne is a privately developed rocket plane that will became the world's first commercial manned space vehicle and the first non-governmental flight to leave the Earth's atmosphere.

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SpaceShipOne pilot Michael W. Melvill, center, embraces designer Burt Rutan, left, as project sponsor Paul Allen watches after the craft landed after a trip to suborbital space at Mojave, Calif., airport Monday, June 21, 2004. SpaceShipOne is a privately developed rocket plane that became the world's first commercial manned space vehicle and the first non-governmental flight to leave the Earth's atmosphere.

Yet another magnificent accomplishment for the White man.