Private Manned Space Plane Built In Secret

[athelind]

Sounds like a classic pulp magazine premise, doesn't it?

Well, it looks like maverick designer Burt Rutan has done exactly that.

He and his company, Scaled Composites, have worked on bleeding-edge launch concepts like the DC-X, the Roton, and NASA's X-38 -- all of which got canceled. Now, they've taken the old concept of launching a spaceplane from a manned aircraft, and built SpaceShipOne and its launch vessel, The White Knight.

That's right, built. Not just designed or modeled -- they got private funding and built an actual airworthy vessel in two years.

Now they just have to prove it spaceworthy. The launch vehicle has flown several times, but they haven't tested the space ship yet. I hope they pull this off -- it could really give a kickstart to manned space flight.

And watch out for those cosmic rays, guys.

Comments

[araquan.livejournal.com]

   I wish them well and hope it works... And hope that this isn't the last of these things that we see. I appreciate all that NASA and other agencies have done for us, but lately it seems that anybody with any real vision when it comes to our future in space isn't getting their way. That's a shame, to put it mildly. I'm one of those crazies who thinks that we (and by 'we' I mean humankind) should have had a permanent moon base and a permanent orbital station since the Carter years (and expanded both in the years after) and that someone should have put a bootprint on Mars by the end of the reign of Bush I. There should have been unmanned missions to Europa and Titan by then as well.
   When it comes to kickstarting drive in this country, though, I don't think this private project will necessarily cut it. What will, I think, is China's program. What we really need here is another Sputnik. Taikonauts orbiting overhead- while not necessarily providing the same shock value that Sputnik did- will at least get people's attention. Of course, it would be really interesting if they were able to send somone to the moon in the next few years. Now THAT would be a Sputnik moment.

[drakegrey.livejournal.com]

God forbid they should experience the business end of a Forbrush Decline in the magnetosphere. ;)

--Drake