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[Phoenix]

Its unofficial, but the flight is done the craft is flying well.

 

[DaCocoBrova]

Good sh!t... Did he roll this time? I'd be scared as sh!t if I rolled on accident at those speeds.

 

[SteveMeister]

I honestly didn't think this could be done, not by a private company. Congrats to Rutan & all involved -- this is truly an historic day in the history of flight.

 

[Slo]

It's a great achievement, but I hope that the prize being off the table won't stunt the interest in private space flight. Is there an XPrize 2 for leaving orbit?

 

[Slo]

Oh yeah, CARMACK AM CRYING

 

[SteveMeister]

It's a great achievement, but I hope that the prize being off the table won't stunt the interest in private space flight. Is there an XPrize 2 for leaving orbit?

Xprize 2 should be for ACHIEVING orbit

Xprize 3 = docking with the ISS

Xprize 4 = moon landing, baby

of course all of those are orders of magnitude more difficult to achieve than simly reaching 62 miles in altitude, so I think those will be much, much further off, if they happen at all.

 

[DarienA]

From CNN.COM

SpaceShipOne is gliding back to Earth after soaring toward the edge of space today. Pilot Brian Binnie reported a shaky flight with "a little roll" but did not experience the 29 rolls Mike Melvill experienced last week. CNN's Miles O'Brien reported that it's not yet clear whether the craft reached space, about 62 miles above Earth. If the trip is successful, SpaceShipOne qualifies for the $10 million X prize, created to spur privately funded space tourism.


The tension!!!!!

Ok here's the thing.... are these folks now going to launch a business where they actually take folks up for a few minutes? That would rock... too bad the prices are probably going to be RIDICULOUS.

EDIT:

California (CNN) -- SpaceShipOne reached the 62-mile altitude considered to be "outer space" for the second time in a week to claim the $10 million Ansari X Prize.

Congrats!

 

[Phoenix]

Officially does 368K feet and beats out the previous X-15 flight for the record height for a rocketplane.

 

[Phoenix]

I honestly didn't think this could be done, not by a private company. Congrats to Rutan & all involved -- this is truly an historic day in the history of flight.

All of the great things in history have always been done by individuals and small private companies

 

[DarienA]

Live webcast!

http://www.xprize.org/webcast/webcast.php

 

[Vennt]

From CNN.COM

SpaceShipOne is gliding back to Earth after soaring toward the edge of space today. Pilot Brian Binnie reported a shaky flight with "a little roll" but did not experience the 29 rolls Mike Melvill experienced last week. CNN's Miles O'Brien reported that it's not yet clear whether the craft reached space, about 62 miles above Earth. If the trip is successful, SpaceShipOne qualifies for the $10 million X prize, created to spur privately funded space tourism.


The tension!!!!!

Ok here's the thing.... are these folks now going to launch a business where they actually take folks up for a few minutes? That would rock... too bad the prices are probably going to be RIDICULOUS.

EDIT:

California (CNN) -- SpaceShipOne reached the 62-mile altitude considered to be "outer space" for the second time in a week to claim the $10 million Ansari X Prize.

Congrats!

Yep, they're supposed to have teamed up with Virgin to offer such a service, at 150k per trip IIRC.

See: http://www.virgingalactic.com/

27th September 2004

Today at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London's West End, Sir Richard Branson and Burt Rutan made their announcement to the world's media that Virgin Galactic was now in a position to commence a programme of work that would result in the world's first affordable space tourist flights in 2 to 3 years time.

Sir Richard said: "Virgin has been in talks with Paul Allen and Burt throughout this year and in the early hours of Saturday morning signed a historical deal to license SpaceShipOne's technology to build the world's first private spaceship to go into commercial operating service."

 

[dem]

Anyone else think its kinda lame that they spent like 25 million to win a 10 million dollar prize?

I know its not all about the prize.. but still...


There should have been a rule that they had to spend less than 10 million.. =P

 

[Phoenix]

On final approach.

 

[Saturnman]

Who were the other contestant in the X-prize? Only heard of Spaceship One and one other project.

 

[Phoenix]

And he's down and safe.


(stupid 60 second limit)

 

[DarienA]

Touchdown!

 

[teiresias]

In a surprise revelation, the XPrize proceeds are to be used to fund the purchase of a new engine for DNF.

 

[SickBoy]

It's a great achievement, but I hope that the prize being off the table won't stunt the interest in private space flight.

I'm sure all the other teams working on entries will still try to complete them. Or at least I'd hope they would if they're relatively far along.

-SB

 

[Phoenix]

Now that its shown to be 'doable', the other teams will now be competing to sell their technology to other companies trying to do the whole 'space tourism' thing. What Rutan has done is create a brand new industry - it may be 30 years to develop, but the biggest thing that has happened is that corporates know there is money to be made for reasonably small investments.

 

[teiresias]

"I didn't build this ship only to cater to the super rich, everyone in the world should have the right to experience this attraction."

"Well, of course, we'll have a . . . coupon day . . . or something."

 

[SteveMeister]

"I didn't build this ship only to cater to the super rich, everyone in the world should have the right to experience this attraction."

"Well, of course, we'll have a . . . coupon day . . . or something."

lol awesome reference, I'd been thinking along the same lines

 

[BigJonsson]

Haha

Took the words right outta my mouth

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

It's a great achievement, but I hope that the prize being off the table won't stunt the interest in private space flight. Is there an XPrize 2 for leaving orbit?

I'm not sure if it's going by the X Prize name, and I'm not sure about all the details (news searches are getting so many results about today's happenings), but a few days back I heard of a new prize, which I believe is based on a 5 person craft going to orbit, as opposed to the prize just won based on a 3 person craft to sub-orbit.

 

[Gahiggidy]

They should have a Cube-Prize.

 

[ConfusingJazz]

Man, they should start making sweepstakes or a lottery or something for a free ride once in a couple years. That would probably make up the rest of the 10 million paul allen invested in this easily.