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Team Announces Pilot for Spacecraft Flight

Posted on: Monday, 21 June 2004, 06:00 CDT

A veteran civilian test pilot will be at the controls when a rocket plane attempts the first commercial manned space flight, program officials said Sunday.

Mike Melvill, 62, will pilot SpaceShipOne in an attempt to reach an altitude of 62 miles today, aerospace designer Burt Rutan and program financier Paul G. Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft Corp., said during a press conference at Mojave Airport.

Melvill, who holds records for altitude and speed in various classes of aircraft, has logged more than 6,400 hours of flight time in 111 fixed-wing aircraft and seven helicopters. He has made test flights in crop duster prototypes, performed ground and aerial cannon firing in a prototype jet fighter, as well as in ground support fighters. He also has tested racing planes.

"I'm very, very flattered to have been chosen for this," Melvill said. "I'm delighted to do it."

Melvill is a test pilot and vice president/general manager at Rutan's Scaled Composites, which built SpaceShipOne. He piloted the rocket plane on a test flight last month in which it soared 40 miles high.

"I enjoyed the last flight," Melvill said. "I'm hoping this will be an exact repetition just a little taller, a little higher, a little faster, and I'm looking forward to it very, very much."

Allen would not say specifically how much he has paid for the program, only that it has been in excess of $20 million.

"Clearly there is an enormous, pent up hunger to fly in space and not just dream about it," Rutan told reporters, photographers and news cameras Sunday.

"Now I know what it was like to be involved in America's amazing race to the moon in the '60s," he said. "Those folks were driven ... and they had the fun of working for America's prestige."

Aviation enthusiasts began gathering in the Mojave on Sunday under a blistering desert sun and thousands were expected to be on hand today when SpaceShipOne makes its attempt to reach space.

A twin-engine jet named White Knight was to take off from Mojave Airport at 6:30 a.m. climb to 50,000 and release SpaceShipOne about an hour later.

The early hour was chosen for the brief suborbital flight because weather conditions are usually the most favorable in the often windy high desert. Winds or clouds could force a postponement.

After release from the mothership, SpaceShipOne's pilot will ignite the rocket and pull up into an 80-second powered climb.

After the motor shuts down, the craft will coast the rest of the way up to a target altitude of 62 miles.

The rocket plane will then re-enter the atmosphere and become a glider as it makes a 15- to 20-minute descent to a landing back at Mojave.

If SpaceShipOne is successful, Rutan 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.

Rutan's is one of more than 20 teams around the world developing spacecraft to seek the X Prize.

To win, a privately financed spacecraft, capable of carrying three people, must fly to an altitude of 62 miles and land safely, then repeat it within two weeks.

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

SpaceShipOne's first suborbital attempt will not be an X Prize flight, but officials of the X Prize Foundation will be watching closely.

"Our purpose in creating the X Prize was to promote the personal spaceflight revolution," said Gregg E. Maryniak, executive director of the foundation.

NASA also is interested, both in projects like Rutan's and a prize system to spur development, said Michael Lembeck, requirements division director of the Office of Exploration Systems.

"We need people like Burt Rutan with innovative ideas that will take us to the moon and Mars," he said from NASA headquarters. "Folks like Burt bring a different way of doing business."

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