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If you're up at 6:30 PST (9:30 EST) Mon. June 21st, CNN is supposed to be covering it. The first privately funded attempt to put astronauts in space (for 3 minutes, which will win them 10 million if they succeed).

Tier One info site

Best of luck to them. I'd love to see someone succeed at this.

Sponsored by Champ Car

um dont they have to do it twice within a week to qualify for the ten mill?
cheers
rij

Actually, it's twice in two weeks, with the same spacecraft. From what I've read, these guys plan to do that later this year.

They get the prize when they take three people up 62.5 miles in the span of two weeks.

well he got there

video and details http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/06/2 ... index.html

damn it cant watch the vids cause its RM format

Well down Scaled! Great stuff.

That's exciting! The pictures are pretty cool. Those are some *creative* looking airplanes--both the SpaceShipOne and the White Knight.

Burt Rutan is the master of aircraft stability and control. That is a big reason why his aircraft look like they do. He is one of the few engineers who have figured it out.

Warlock - just install RealPlayer One. It's not the FUCKware it used to be. Simply disable "Realsched" form your startup using MSCONFIG. You're done.

You actually don't even need to use msconfig to disable realsched -- there's an option within realplayer to do it, and it's not hard to find. Just uncheck the options box that says "check for updates automatically"...

Lothar wrote:You actually don't even need to use msconfig to disable realsched -- there's an option within realplayer to do it, and it's not hard to find. Just uncheck the options box that says "check for updates automatically"...

Feh. Real Alternative. use it people.

Mobius wrote:Warlock - just install RealPlayer One. It's not the **** it used to be. Simply disable "Realsched" form your startup using MSCONFIG. You're done.

ummmm no. POS Real software is comeing aney where need my computer, its one of the worse formats ever

i finally saw some footage of it on the news. when the pup craft (spaceship1) detatches and fires engines, creating an instant growing line of plume. that was a cool moment

Real One is a the biggest piece of spyware I've seen in a long time. I won't load it on my system either. The world will gone fine without me.

...but somehow you felt you needed to share that with everybody?

of coooouuurrse. ok. i'll sit down now.

That's pretty awesome, at least in my eyes. At least that means that if NASA doesn't want to do it, it's still possible in spaceflight. Now watch the government declare that space is "government property"

Here's another related article that was pretty good:
http://www.economist.com/science/displa ... id=2787812

A friend of mine worked on that little spacecraft, he sent the following email in response to a question about the loud THUMP that was heard and big dent in the fusalage. (the comment at the end is in reference to the fact that he's battling cancer):

"Mike Melville has balls of steel. Despite a major roll trim tab servo malfunction which caused a couple of rolls, and asymmetrical thrust which was approaching the limit of yaw control, Mike kept the motor running and stayed with it. I'm not quite certain if the thump was related to the buckling at the back end. The area that buckled is a fairing and not critical structure. On the way up, he was struggling to correct the trim problem as well as fighting to stay on course. At the top, he still had the presence of mind to take a few seconds to put a hand full of M&M's out in front of him just to see them float. Then he went back to work overriding the trim control before re-entering the atmosphere. He told me that if the trim tab issue could not be corrected, he was certain that the spacecraft would have been torn apart as it re-entered. The man is a true test pilot. An amazing guy. Very fun to work with. Being alive to see that flight was a great gift. "

Good read. Glad to see they met with success.