Facing Competition, SpaceShipTwo Gets Set: Behind the Scenes

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• SpaceShipTwo
• Burt Rutan
• space
• spacecraft
• private space

In a nondescript hangar in California’s Mojave Desert, workers at Scaled Composites are assembling SpaceShipTwo, the first spacecraft expressly designed for tourists. The company, which is owned by engineer Burt Rutan, is also building the four-engine plane that will ferry the spaceship to 50,000 ft. After SpaceShipTwo is released from the mother ship, the six passengers will be treated to a Mach 3 burn, straight up, propelled by a mix of nitrous oxide and solid fuel. Then, once the ship crests at 361,000 ft., passengers can float to the windows and gawk for a few minutes before returning to Earth. Spaceship test flights may start in 2009.

19. RE: Facing Competition, SpaceShipTwo Gets Set: Behind the Scenes
I think if a person went to an altitude of 65 miles and saw the earth, blue and curving below a black sky, there is no way he would contest the fact that he is, indeed, in space. But -- I think we're losing what is important in stories like this. The whole point of Scaled and the other visionaries in the Commercial Space industry is to take babysteps towards a profitable and sustainable industry. I work in Mojave at a space company, and my boss has said, "We can't skip making the Wright Flyer of spacecraft". The aircraft industry didn't start with Airbus A380s and Boeing 747s, and the commercial space will not either -- to expect anything else is a result of too much movie magic altering our perspective.

18. RE: Facing Competition, SpaceShipTwo Gets Set: Behind the Scenes
100km from the surface is officially classified as space. So yes I do believer the claims are not misleading. You get zero gravity. Yes it is just the edge - not orbital like the ISS or any other satellite, but it's a positive beginning.

17. RE: Facing Competition, SpaceShipTwo Gets Set: Behind the Scenes
Website: http://www.jsharf.com
Hmmm, all that's missing in that picture of Burt Rutan on the bridge is the three little switches over the pilot's chair that you need to flip before you can do anything...

16. RE: Facing Competition, SpaceShipTwo Gets Set: Behind the Scenes
Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A1rm%C3%A1n_line
>62 miles

15. RE: Facing Competition, SpaceShipTwo Gets Set: Behind the Scenes
Website: http://lunarnetworks.blogspot.com
65 miles is, indeed, "really, really high." That's 100 kilometers, followed by freefall. That's "Outer Space," without question. Why would it be "dangerous" to call it spaceflight or SpaceShip Two a "spaceship?" Stick your head out the window and tell me that's not pretty much as rarified a boundary of Earth as is traversed by ISS? It's not as fast, and not as long a flight, but if it's not Space, than Admiral Shepherd didn't travel into Space until Apollo 14.

14. RE: Facing Competition, SpaceShipTwo Gets Set: Behind the Scenes
#3 is jumping high !!! See http://www.spacetoday.org/SolSys/Earth/AltitudesChart.html They must be angel :P

13. RE: Facing Competition, SpaceShipTwo Gets Set: Behind the Scenes
The official definition is that space starts at 100km. So everyone who files to more than 100km above sea level files into space, hence spaceflight, spaceship etc. The original flight of alan shepard followed a very similar flight profile.

12. RE: Facing Competition, SpaceShipTwo Gets Set: Behind the Scenes
I too would be underwhelmed by this if I could jump 65 miles in the air.

11. RE: Facing Competition, SpaceShipTwo Gets Set: Behind the Scenes
65 miles is high enough to be subject to orbital dynamics and high enough to escape the atmosphere, therefore it is, in fact spaceflight. I'm more of a fan of full orbital, personally, but suborbital flight is definitely spaceflight. Certainly far more so than your jumping jacks

10. RE: Facing Competition, SpaceShipTwo Gets Set: Behind the Scenes
100 km (65 miles) is internationally recognized as the start of outer space. It is the same height of the x prize goal

9. RE: Facing Competition, SpaceShipTwo Gets Set: Behind the Scenes
62 miles is the minimum altitude to be considered space flight. At this altitude you will be registered as an astronaut and be listed in NASA's registry.

8. RE: Facing Competition, SpaceShipTwo Gets Set: Behind the Scenes
Give them time, it'll go higher...

7. RE: 65 Miles
"65 miles isn't space"? Then you try telling Alan Shepard he's not really an astronaut.

6. RE: Facing Competition, SpaceShipTwo Gets Set: Behind the Scenes
The USA definition of spaceflight is 50 miles. The Kármán line, defining the limit of outer space according to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale is 62.1 miles. Either way, 63 miles sounds like space to me.

5. RE: Facing Competition, SpaceShipTwo Gets Set: Behind the Scenes
Wow, you do jumping jacks that are 65 miles high? I think that if the blue sky becomes dark so that you can see stars, as well as being able to see the curvature of the earth, that kinda qualifies as being in space. At this height the spaceship is above 99.9997% of the earth's atmosphere (by mass). For all intents and purposes it is space.

4. RE: Facing Competition, SpaceShipTwo Gets Set: Behind the Scenes
65 miles IS space. Almost all of the earths atmosphere is below that altitude. The space shuttle aerodynamic surfaces don't even start functioning until the craft is 20 miles high when landing. You are confusing space with ORBIT. This is no where near orbital velocity, but yes, it IS space.

3. RE: Facing Competition, SpaceShipTwo Gets Set: Behind the Scenes
65 miles isn't space. 65 miles is "really really high". If 65 miles is spaceflight, then I conduct spaceflight every time I do jumping jacks. Yes, it's an amazing achievement, but it's extremely disingenous for anyone to describe this as "spaceflight", or to call it a "spaceship".

2. RE: Facing Competition, SpaceShipTwo Gets Set: Behind the Scenes
I met Burt Rutan a couple years ago at The University of Texas. Brilliant visionary.

1. RE: Facing Competition, SpaceShipTwo Gets Set: Behind the Scenes
this is pretty cool

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