SpaceShipOne Launch

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First off, two apologies.  This is the first photo update in over a year on this website.  The occasion was just historic enough, though, to warrant doing one now.  Also, I apologize but the first picture is out of order.  It belongs in the middle of the bottom row...

Now, on to the story.  Information about Burt Rutan, Paul Allen and SpaceShipOne is readily available on the internet.  Burt's company, Scaled Composites, designed and built the ship and Paul Allen funded it.  The thing that makes this one of the biggest events in aerospace history is that it's the first ever entirely privately funded space flight.  We went to witness this historic event and the pictures are below.

We left the house at 2:00 a.m. to drive to Mojave, CA where the launch was held.  In attendance were Edi and I, Edison and Erin, Virgil and Lois (my parents), and several people from the Sugar Group:  Marge Smith, Dave, Beckie and Sarah Simko, and Tracy, Philip and Toby Guest.  We caravaned down in three vehicles, and got parked at the airport at about 6:00 a.m.  Taxi was scheduled for 6:30 and it went just about on schedule.  The day was perfect and the winds died down just as they hoped.  White Knight carried SpaceShipOne off the ground around 6:45 a.m. and spent an hour climbing up to around 47,000 ft.  The chase planes consisted of a Beechcraft Starship (a Burt Rutan design that Beech produced in the 1980's), an Extra and an Alpha Jet. 

Once the White Knight reached the 'magic' altitude, SpaceShipOne was released.  Moments later, Mike Melvillefired the rocket and was on his way to space.  He reached 328,491 ft., the highest altitude ever reached by man without using government money.  He recovered safely for a landing back on the runway at Mojave. 

Prior to going to Mojave, we made plans to meet up with Shawn Jipp and Rick Giarrusso.  Shawn is an 'airplane nut' (aren't we all?) who I met years ago on an airline mailing list.  I subsequently introduced him to my brother and we've all been friends ever since.  Shawn lives in the Bay Area and has a friend who works for Scaled Composites.  Rick went to college with my brother and has a unique interest in spaceflight - he was one of the founders and the CFO of Rotary Rockets, a company that hoped to build a single stage to orbit vehicle. 

Rick maintains his friendships with some former Rotary people who work at Xcor, another aerospace company in Mojave.  As a result of our contact with Rick, we took a tour of the Xcor hangar after the launch and recovery activity was over.  Between Xcor, Scaled and other comapnies in Mojave and elsewhere around the world, it appears the real innovation in space flight is happening in the private sector.

After our visit at Xcor, we went to lunch with Rick and his family, and Shawn and David (his son) (pics on the next page).  There were 7 preschoolers in our group of 21 avaition nuts - more than enough to keep the next generation of space flight alive and well. ;)

After lunch, we drove home, knowing that we had just witnessed the dawn of a new era of space flight, just over 100 years after the Wright Brothers first flew.  It was entirely satisfying...