Sci Station Canada

Wednesday, June 23, 2004

It wasn't as easy as it looked

In years to come they'll make a film of the X Prize and it will be as exciting as anything B & B have dreamed up! Universe Today ran the following based on a Scaled Composites News Release

[Snip]
A few hours after the historic flight of SpaceShipOne, pilot Mike Melvill and designer Burt Rutan revealed that the trip to space wasn't worry free. Far from it, in fact. A technical glitch in the early moments of the rocket burn caused Melvill to lose control, and SpaceShipOne rolled back and forth. He was forced to switch to a backup system to keep the spaceship from being destroyed. Training and backup systems carried the day, though, and Melvill was able to regain control of SpaceShipOne, and gain enough altitude to just barely reach 100 km (62.5 miles). At least one more test flight is planned to ensure this mistake is resolved before risking the pilot and spacecraft on an official X Prize attempt.
[EndSnip]

Just as with the pioneers of the air, The road to space will be paved by the daring, skilled and adventurous.

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