I tried to take off work for the original launch of spaceship one. Instead I watched it live in our office at Eli Lilly's with 8 others. Only one of which understood what it actually meant. Burt Rutan is likely my only hero that has never let me down.
The flight of Mike Melville...it was more than than just the first private space flight. The engine cowling buckled(we found out about a month later from Burt Rutan),and Mike made the call to keep the throttle up. 17 seconds of rolling at full power was certainly not in the script(1:10 into the video). He would/did not cut power until he confirmed he would reach altitude. Making him the 435th human to reach space.
It did not happen over night either. here is the history behind that flight. I believe it was the 58th flight. Of which Mike flew in all of either as the pilot or co-pilot(all but 3 if I remember correctly). He moved on to be the general manager of Scaled composites a few months later(after training other pilots to fly spaceship one and two).
http://www.astronautix.com/s/spaceshipone.html
2004 September 29 - . 15:09 GMT - . Launch Site: Mojave. Launch Complex: Mojave RW12/30. Launch Platform: WK1. LV Family: SpaceShip. Launch Vehicle: Spaceship One.
- SpaceShipOne Flight 16P - X-Prize Flight 1 - . Nation: USA. Agency: Scaled. Apogee: 103 km (64 mi).
SpaceShipOne coasted to 103 km altitude and successfully completed the first of two X-Prize flights. The motor was shut down when the pilot noted that his altitude predictor exceeded the required 100 km mark. The motor burn lasted 77 seconds, 1 second longer than on the June 21st flight. Melvill was prepared to burn the motor up to 89 seconds, which indicates significant additional performance remains in SS1. During the motor burn the spacecraft began to roll uncontrollably, but Melvill pressed on despite advice from the ground to shut the motor down and abort the attempt.
Last edited:
