#spaceshipone

[biographiness]

On June 21, from the inked quills of 1788 to the secret whispers of 1877, we launch into the cosmic legacy of 2004.🚀✨

Follow👉 @biographiness

[hug-your-face]

I attended the SpaceShipOne flight that won the team the X-Prize.

There is a huge difference between Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites team — and their financial backers Paul Allen and Richard Branson/Virgin — vs Oceangate. Difference in mission, difference in experience, difference in safety, difference in attitude.

I know we are all furious at how a very few people are ruining life on our planet by exploiting so many of us. I sure as hell am. But — unpopular opinion, I suspect — I see a nuance between *merely wealthy* people investing in something that reignited interest in space for the general public at a time when interest in space was dying vs. *extractively wealthy* people making shoddy toys to go visit a mass grave together.

[world-beauty]

Planet Earth from SpaceShipOne

Credits: Scaled Composites

[identifying-planes-in-posts]

trick or treat!

You get:

Scaled Composites White Knight (and SpaceShipOne)

[piratesexmachine420]

It's interesting to note that all but one of the four manned spaceplane to make a flight above the 50 mile US definition of space have had a LOCV, namely:

X-15 no. 3 on X-15 Flight 3-65-97 (1967)

OV-099 Challenger on STS-51-L (1986)

OV-102 Columbia on STS-107 (2003)

VSS Enterprise (N339SS) on PF04 (2014)

Only SpaceShipOne avoided catastrophe. Perhaps that's because it was the safest of the bunch, perhaps it's only due to a small sample size of 15 non-captive flights. I lean towards the latter -- there were a lot of problems across those 15 flights.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 6.21 (after 1960)

1963 – Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini is elected as Pope Paul VI. 1964 – Three civil rights workers, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner, are murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi, United States, by members of the Ku Klux Klan. 1970 – Penn Central declares Section 77 bankruptcy in what was the largest U.S. corporate bankruptcy to date. 1973 – The Primer Congreso del Hombre Andino is inaugurated in Arica, Chile. 1973 – In its decision in Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15, the Supreme Court of the United States establishes the Miller test for determining whether something is obscene and not protected speech under the U.S. constitution. 1978 – The original production of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, Evita, based on the life of Eva Perón, opens at the Prince Edward Theatre, London. 1982 – John Hinckley is found not guilty by reason of insanity for the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ronald Reagan. 1985 – Braathens SAFE Flight 139 is hijacked on approach to Oslo Airport, Fornebu. Special forces arrest the hijacker and there are no fatalities. 1989 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397, that American flag-burning is a form of political protest protected by the First Amendment. 1993 – Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on STS-57 to retrieve the European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA) satellite. It is also the first shuttle mission to carry the Spacehab module. 2000 – Section 28 (of the Local Government Act 1988), outlawing the 'promotion' of homosexuality in the United Kingdom, is repealed in Scotland with a 99 to 17 vote. 2001 – A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, indicts 13 Saudis and a Lebanese in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 American servicemen. 2004 – SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight. 2005 – Edgar Ray Killen, who had previously been unsuccessfully tried for the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Mickey Schwerner, is convicted of manslaughter 41 years afterwards (the case had been reopened in 2004). 2006 – Pluto's newly discovered moons are officially named Nix and Hydra. 2006 – A Yeti Airlines de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter crashes at Jumla Airport in Nepal, killing nine people. 2009 – Greenland assumes self-rule. 2012 – A boat carrying more than 200 migrants capsizes in the Indian Ocean between the Indonesian island of Java and Christmas Island, killing 17 people and leaving 70 others missing. 2012 – An Indonesian Air Force Fokker F27 Friendship crashes near Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport, killing 11.

[the-technicolor-whiscash]

Also ok so I've been reading that book about the development of SpaceShipOne and it has wild ups and downs but the one area where I'm like "this dude is a fucking bozo" is when Peter Diamandis is talking to Burt Rutan to pitch his batshit idea for UAV-based broadband and Rutan asks him "what were the first five rockets to launch a human payload" and the self-proclaimed space fanatic says "mercury Gemini and apollo" and of course Rutan corrects him because the first human launch vehicle was vostok and he's like ok what's the second and again Diamandis says Mercury and Rutan is like you absolute buffoon. Because any self-respecting space obsessive would know that the Mercury program had two different vehicles, Redstone and Atlas. And I'm reading this and I'm like for fuck's sake dude you literally started a space university.

[cle-news]

On en est où dans tout ça ?

SpaceShipTwo — Wikipédia (wikipedia.org)

Etape 0 : Fonder le Consortium International des Explorateurs Terriens (ou obtenir une autre source régulière d'investissements)

Etape 1 : Concevoir un premier avion lanceur et une première navette touristique. "Low-cost". Produire de l'H2. Explorez l'espace en survolant la Terre pour un tarif exceptionnel, à partir de 1490€/pers., (environ 6 fois le prix d'un vol Paris - New York (Repas personnalisés réservables par avance non inclus)* Si tu as un Permis Navette, on loue aussi quelques X-Wing, des Micro-Navettes (avec un pilote automatique (retour automatique) et une chambre) et aussi des Navettes Privées avec Chambre et Chauffeur (ou Pilote automatique et ligne téléphonique directe avec la base)...

SpaceShipOne — Wikipédia (wikipedia.org)

SpaceShipTwo — Wikipédia (wikipedia.org)

Etape 2 : Concevoir le premier site minier Lunaire (incluant les facilités nécessaires (contrôle parfait de la qualité de l'air, serres, élevage, restaurants etc.) (ajouter un Hôtel...) (Récupérer et recycler les débris spatiaux également)

Etape 3 : Créer Moon TV... Rentabiliser un maximum...

Etape Bonus : Commencer à étudier des méthodes de capture d'Azote et d'H2 automatisées à faible cout (temps long, mais consommation faible et réemploie des modules de captages) L'Azote a une valeur... L'H2 (naturel) peut être vendu sur Terre, en récupérant une quantité équivalente de CH4, pour équilibrer la quantité d'atomes d'hydrogènes sur Terre. La capture d'H2 a un double objectif. Essayer d'être moins chère (ce qui représente un sacré défit) et ne plus avoir à employer d'énergie pour le produire.

=> ça fait les premiers emplois ...

*(cf. Détails ci-dessous)

Biens immobiliers sur la Lune

Le postula de base était de ne pas vendre librement de biens immobiliers sur la Lune, car elle n'a pas de possibilité, actuellement rationnelle, de disposer un jour d'une atmosphère libre viable pour l'Homme sans équipements individuels complémentaires, contrairement à Mars, Venus et Jupiter. Et n'a donc pas vocation à un type d'habitat permanant (naturel induit)

La pesanteur

Si la pesanteur dépend en partie de la densité de l'atmosphère. Elle peut être réduite (Jupiter...) en modifiant la quantité et le mélange de gaz d'un atmosphère. Mais les détails concernant la perturbation du flux sanguin m'échappes encore sur ce point. La respiration est alors moins perturbée et la sensation de poids est également réduite.

Tarifs des survoles touristiques de la Terre

Décollage relativement doux si possible et atterrissage elliptique-freiné...

Par Rapport à un vole en Avion :

Après première rentabilisation des investissements (sur le long terme) = au moins deux fois le cout en carburant d'un vol simple en Avion.

Doublement des couts d'entretiens du matériel (Avion + Navette)

Hors services de restauration, blanchisserie etc.

Peut embarquer moins de passagers.

=> Doublement des Charges et deux fois moins de passagers => Du quadruple au quintuple du tarif d'un vol en avion (hors frais de restauration)

[battybriefs]

I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a child, but then I realized I was terrible at math and had a crippling fear of heights and the vaccume of space.

Now I'm married to a pilot, and ballast for his home built aircraft. That aircraft, The Cozy Mark 4's design was derived from the Long-EZ canard aircraft designs by Burt Rutan, who is the same person who designed SpaceshipOne- the first civilian aircraft in suborbital space.

It's interesting how the little themes in life repeat themselves.

[spacenutspod]

On June 21, 2004, SpaceShipOne reached the final frontier for the first time, notching a huge milestone for private spaceflight and paving the way for space tourism.

[amelie-donadieu-encychrono25]

il y a 20 ans, SpaceShipOne devient le premier avion à effectuer un vol privé dans l'espace.

#aéronautique #encychrono25

[photos-mdx]

SpaceShipOne

[world-beauty]

Planet Earth from SpaceShipOne

Credits: Scaled Composites

[whattolearntoday]

A bit of June 21st history...

68 - Roman General Vespacian conquers Jericho during the Great Jewish Revolt

1834 - Cyrus McCormick patents the reaping machine (pictured)

1893 - 1st Ferris Wheel premiers in Chicago

2004 - SpaceShipOne becomes 1st privately funded space plane to achieve spaceflight

2006 - Pluto’s newly discovered moons are officially named Nix and Hydra

[piratesexmachine420]

Finally (fully) back from vacation! Here's a list of the coolest (IMO) aircraft I saw in D.C. (in no particular order)

Space shuttle orbiter OV-103 Discovery

Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey, randomly flying over the national mall (in vertical/hover mode. No idea what the tail number was [if only I had binoculars...])

Concorde F-BVFA (not quite as cool as the other one [G-BOAG, at the Museum of Flight in Seattle] I've been to, 'cause you could go in that one, but nonetheless I could've walked around that aircraft for hours)

Various Horten Hos (Don't remember exactly which, Wikipedia lists 4 and I only noticed three. Definitely saw the 229 [parts of it, anyway])

Northrop N-1M

The 1903 Wright Flyer

Bell XV-15 N703NA (only surviving aircraft of its type)

Northrop M2-F3 (was unlabeled [and occupied the spot where X-1-1 should've been] fortunately the M2-F3 is extremely recognizable)

Gemini rogallo wing paraglider

Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet B1-a s/n 191301

Northrup P-61C Black Widow s/n 43-8330 (sue me, I'm a sucker for the P-61)

MacCready Gossamer Albatross

Stinson SR-10F Reliant NX-2311 (modified for nonstop airmail service)

Other thoughts:

This makes 2 out of 3 surviving fully-operational orbiters I've visited. Only Endeavour remains.

I also have yet to see Enterprise, and some of the more significant mockups and test articles (e.g. Pathfinder, Inspiration, etc.). One day, maybe...

Columbia (CM-107), Gemini IV, Gemini VII, and Freedom 7 (MR-3) were all very impressive.

Spacelab was equally impressive.

I could've spent a whole day looking at the lunar rock/regolith display alone.

I did not get to see X-15-1, X-1-1, a Lockheed U-2, SpaceShipOne, Skylab B, or the Apollo-Soyuz display. :( Here's hoping I'll be able to visit again...

The Sr-71 (s/n 61-7972) was also very impressive (as they always are) but IMO the M-21 (s/n 60-6940, only surviving aircraft of its type) at the Museum of Flight edges it out in coolness factor. Sorry, SR-71.

Basically every aircraft at the Udvar-Hazy center was so cool. I did get a little tired of the German WWII fighters and bombers though.

The MiG-21 (not totally sure about serial number) was also very uninspiring--not its fault, I just can't find in my heart to care about the MiG-21. Call me back when you're a MiG-25. (Or a MiG-105... *will almost certainly never go to Russia, sighs deeply*)

Shoutout to the SBD (s/n 10575) at the Chicago Midway airport. Did not expect to see that while searching for my concourse.

Anti-shoutout to the Trump-Vance campaign 737-800 I saw land at Reagan Natl. Apt. It was a little cool to see them wheel out the boarding stairs on the tarmac for them to deplane, but I have no love in my heart for that aircraft. Maybe once it resells to someone more... reputable.

I always forget that the early Wright bros. aircraft had their elevators in front of their wings--and indeed the rest of the aircraft. What was going on there.

Saw the Sonic Wind 1 rocket sled. It did not look pleasant.

Saw a prototype helicopter called the XHOE-1 (s/n 138652), which I'd never heard of, and was a truly baffling aircraft: a helo w/ blade-tip ramjets. What were Hiller smoking in the 1950s? I want some.

Neil Armstrong's A7L was sooooooo cool. (I personally would've been little more excited for an A7LB but you gotta respect the historic significance)

The Surveyor 3 TV camera was also soooooooooo cool. As I already said, if I was in charge of the National Air and Space Museum I would've dedicated the entire floor to the Surveyor 3 TV camera.

Cool engines I saw: XLR-99, F-1 (though I've seen some before, and on a Saturn V, no less), J58 (which I've also seen before, but it's still impressive), and an XLR-71 (Navaho rocket engine)

Saw a Corona re-entry capsule and a recovery hook, very neat

Also saw an S-IVB interstage (with LVDC!)

Unrelated to aerospace, but the Capitol Building is enormous. And racist. Enormously racist.

The White House, meanwhile, is about the size of a house. A big house, but a house. Go figure.

I could go on and on listing stuff, but I'll cap it off there. So much cool stuff... (Go look at the Smithsonian website if for whatever reason you're dying to know everything I may have seen.)