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Space Tourism Goes Off With a Bang; Privately Owned Craft Buckles but Survives Historic Flight

Posted on: Tuesday, 22 June 2004, 06:00 CDT

THE world's first privately-funded trip to space went with a bang yesterday, as a section of the experimental spacecraft making the historic journey buckled mid-flight.

Despite the hitch, the landing of SpaceShipOne on a desert airfield in California shortly after dawn promised to open up a new era of space tourism.

Its journey to 62 miles above the surface of the earth - the somewhat arbitrary point at which space officially begins - marked the first commercial space flight, with the aim of eventually attracting paying passengers.

It also brought the design team, led by Burt Rutan, the aviation pioneer who has been granted the first licence to launch a manned sub-orbital rocket, closer to a (pounds) 5.5m prize set up to encourage commercial space travel in the future.

Shortly before take-off, 62-year-old Mike Melvill, its pilot, could be seen giving the thumbs up to the thousands of people gathered near the runway from the window of the craft, whose design looked part-catamaran and part-Airfix model.

It was carried to 50,000ft by a turbojet rocket called White Knight. The craft then separated and a brief rocket burst sent SpaceShipOne soaring above the ozone layer, 40 miles above the earth's surface.

It then stalled and glided back to earth, one hour and 28 minutes after departure, to land successfully at Mojave airport.

Radar confirmation could not immediately confirm that the craft had exceeded the 62- mile boundary, but officials later claimed the flight had reached its mark.

However, potential passengers may be a little deterred by Mr Melvill's description of the journey as "very intimidating" at times.

Standing on the tarmac in Mojave shortly after touchdown, the test pilot and vice-president of Scaled Composites, the company that built the craft, said the peak of the journey was an "almost religious experience".

But, describing the approach to supersonic speed, he said: "You can hear this incredible rushing sound like some hurricane coming by. The thing just has a high-frequency roar to it, that's very, very intimidating."

Mr Melvill said there was a scare during the flight when he heard a loud bang and pointed to the rear of the spacecraft, where a part of the structure covering the nozzle had buckled, suggesting it may have been the source of the noise.

However, Mr Rutan, who also designed the craft that made the first non-stop flight around the world without refuelling, gave a more upbeat assessment of its performance.

He said: "Up there in mission control there were three or four times during the flight . . . you saw these people extremely emotional.

"I am absolutely delighted that what I laid out in 1999, this configuration and design, was finalised."

He added: "It's the first time that a winged vehicle can have a carefree re-entry, and that is an enormous thing for safety."

The flight brings Scaled Composites and Mr Rutan one step closer to winning the (pounds) 5.5m X-Prize, offered to the first group to put a three-seater craft 62.5 miles above the earth twice within two weeks.

The landing was also greeted by Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, who has provided at least (pounds) 10m funding for the project. The craft cost around (pounds) 11m - much cheaper than missions launched by government-funded programmes around the world.

The head of one of the three British companies who were competing for the X-Prize last night praised the historic flight.

Steve Bennett, chief executive of Greater Manchester-based civilian space project Starchaser Industries, said: "This just proves that you don't have to be Nasa or a government organisation.

"Space tourism is within our grasp."

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