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Flight of Privately Developed Craft Marks Beginning of New Era in Space

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

Jun. 22--MOJAVE, Calif. -- Marking the start of a new age of spaceflight by ordinary people, a red, white and blue rocket plane zoomed Monday to 62 miles above Earth, becoming the first privately developed craft to reach space.

Famed designer Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne, financed with more than $20 million from billionaire Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, soared into space before thousands of spectators who gathered at Mojave Airport to witness history being made.

"The flight was spectacular. It was a mind-blowing experience," said Mike Melvill, the 63-year-old pilot, after landing safely from the flight that included 3 minutes of weightless.

He was handed astronaut wings upon his return -- the first ever awarded by the Federal Aviation Administration.

"This flight today opens a new chapter in history, making space access in reach of everyday citizens," said FAA Associate Administrator Patricia Grace Smith. "It's a major step in ushering in a new low-cost era in space travel."

Covered by hundreds of news media representatives and televised live, the flight was historic -- the opening of human space travel to private enterprise -- and an inspiration for youngsters.

Not only was Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne the first privately financed, privately built craft to go into space, it was the first American craft of any kind to take a man into space since the destruction of the shuttle Columbia 14 months ago.

"This is actually America's return to space. I'm overjoyed. This is something that should have happened 20 years ago," said Peter Diamondis, co-founder of the Ansari X Prize, a $10 million purse offered to the first commercial spacecraft carrying three people on two suborbital flights within two weeks.

Before the flight, Melvill's wife of 43 years, Sally, pinned a tiny horseshoe onto his flight suit for good luck. The horseshoe pin was one he had given her when she was 16.

"I've worn it on every flight, and so far it has kept the luck for me," said Melvill.

During his weightlessness, Melvill had a few moments of fun with M&M candies, favored because of his initials.

"I let them go," Melvill said. "They were floating around like little sparkly things."

Melvill emerged from the spacecraft to be greeted by well-wishers including former astronaut and moon-walker Buzz Aldrin. Rutan, who designed the Voyager aircraft that in 1986 flew around the world without refueling, hugged the pilot.

"We have redefined space travel as we know it," Rutan said after the landing.

On the ground at the airport, the flight was watched by thousands of space enthusiasts, technophiles, college students, and moms and dads with their children. Some traveled hundreds of miles to arrive before dawn at the airport 90 miles north of Los Angeles.

"It was awesome. It was a piece of history. I was kind of choked up, in fact," said Oregon electrical engineer Garrett Hall, 32, who flew down in a private plane with friend Scott Resnick to watch the flight.

Jonathan and Annie Hammond were there with daughters Eliza, 6, and Hannah, 3, in nightgowns, son Isaac, 2, in a stroller and 2-month-old son Jacob in his mother's arms. The family drove all night from Phoenix.

"It's a chance to see, up close, somebody go to space. I don't think we'll get invited again for a while," Jonathan Hammond said. "It will be something for the kids to remember."

SpaceShipOne, slung beneath a Rutan-designed mother ship called the White Knight, taxied out to cheers from the crowd at 6:38 a.m. and took off a few minutes later.

"I had my heart in my throat when I watched the launch," said Allen, Rutan's partner in Scaled Composites.

For more than an hour, the White Knight, with test pilot Brian Binnie at the controls, and the rocket plane spiraled slowly upward to the target altitude of about 47,000 feet. Melvill described that as a very lonely time because there was little for him to do.

Spectators watched through binoculars and telephoto camera lenses as the craft, escorted by another Rutan design called the Starship, dwindled to white specks in the blue sky.

At 7:52 a.m., a voice came out of spectators' aviation radio scanners: "And fire."

A white line -- the rocket exhaust -- blossomed high in the sky above the eastern horizon, streaking upward across the face of the rising sun. Spectators cheered, clapped and whistled.

"It just tore out like a bat out of hell. It was amazing how fast it climbed," said Julius Wu, a day trader and hobby rocket builder from Fremont, who drove down Sunday and spent the night in his car at Mojave Airport.

As it climbed, the rocket plane rolled unexpectedly to its left.

Melvill corrected the controls and continued on. Near the 62-mile mark, a problem was detected in an actuator that helps control the roll, and Melvill switched to a backup system.

Afterward, the flight team said the actuator problem caused the rocket plane to miss its re-entry target area by about 22 miles, which it covered in about five seconds, though it remained within reach of Mojave Airport.

Something also buckled an engine nozzle, which might have contributed to the spacecraft peaking about 32,000 feet shy of the 360,000-foot goal.

Rutan said the team will take several days to analyze the actuator problem before determining how to proceed with flight tests.

Originally, Rutan had planned to go after the Ansari X Prize on the next two flights.

By Jim Skeen and Charles F. Bostwick

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