SpaceShipOne claims space frontier prize

7.45am - By CHARLES ARTHUR


Thousands of people watched as a stubby rocket plane touched down safely in the Mojave desert to claim a dual prize: the first private crewed spacecraft to make two successful missions within a two-week period, and the US$10 million ($15 million) prize for doing so.

SpaceShipOne, piloted by Brian Binnie, was launched from the belly of a carrier plane in midair and then fired its rocket to accelerate to three times the speed of sound, upwards to an altitude of 100km. That is generally agreed to be the height at which space begins and the Earth's atmosphere ends. It landed safely half an hour later.

"This is the true frontier of transportation," said Marion Blakey, head of the US Federal Aviation Administration, who stood near the runway to watch the space flight.

"It feels a little bit like Kitty Hawk [where the Wright Brothers first demonstrated powered flight] must have," Ms Blakey added. "I think it's an enormous step because what it does, really, is establish I think in the minds of the average American the fact that that this is something that you can actually consider in your lifetime."

Funded by the multi-millionaire Paul Allen, co-founder of the software company Microsoft, SpaceShipOne claimed the Ansari X Prize, set up eight years ago and intended to drive private companies to develop rockets to carry tourists and other commercial ventures into space.

But although entrepreneurs such as Richard Branson have said they will use such craft to run commercial ventures taking tourists into space on short round trips from 2007, profits could be elusive.

SpaceShipOne has cost about US$30m to develop so far. Although future designs could build on expertise gained there, the cost of seats would be multiple thousands of pounds.

The plane had first flown into space on June 21 as part of a series of flights working up to the coveted X Prize. A second flight, and the first of the pair aiming to win the X Prize, was made last Wednesday. Then, the craft ascended to 64 miles, as confirmed by the prize's judges.

To win it had to ascend again within two weeks - a tougher schedule than would normally be asked of the US space agency Nasa, whose shuttles are still grounded following the fatal explosion on February 1 2003 of the Space Shuttle Columbia during re-entry. Seven people died.

Last week's flight had been the source of much internet gossip after the craft suffered a number of shuddering, violent rolls that almost led to its pilot, Mike Melvill, to abort the ascent. But he held on and the flight passed safely.

But the rumours were enough to prompt the craft's designer, Burt Rutan, to post preliminary data about it on his website over the weekend following what he called "incorrect rumours" about the flight when the spacecraft had seemed to roll repeatedly as it headed spacewards.

The first roll occurred at a high speed, about Mach 2.7, but aerodynamic loads on the spacecraft were low and decreasing rapidly "so the ship never saw any significant structural stresses," he said.

Ansari X Prize founder Peter Diamandis hoped the multi-million-dollar incentive would have the same effect on space travel as the Orteig Prize had on air travel. Charles Lindbergh claimed that US$25,000 prize in 1927 after making his solo trans-Atlantic flight.

- INDEPENDENT