Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne

For information about the design of SpaceShipOne, and on related projects and commercial ventures, see Tier One.

Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne

Scaled Composites Model 316 SpaceShipOne completed the first privately funded human spaceflight on June 21, 2004.

SpaceShipOne was an experimental air-launched suborbital spaceplane that used a hybrid rocket motor. The design featured a unique "feathering" reentry system where the rear half of the wing and the twin tail booms folded upward along a hinge running the length of the wing; this increased drag while remaining stable. The achievements of SpaceShipOne are more comparable to the X-15 than orbiting spacecraft like the Space Shuttle. Accelerating a spacecraft to orbital speed requires more than 30 times as much energy as lifting it to 100 km.

SpaceShipOne was developed by Scaled Composites, Burt Rutan's aviation company, in their Tier One program, without government funding. On June 21, 2004, it made the first privately funded human spaceflight, and on October 4, it won the $10-million Ansari X Prize, by reaching 100 kilometers in altitude twice in a two-week period with the equivalent of three people on board, with no more than ten percent of the non-fuel weight of the spacecraft replaced between flights. Development costs were estimated to be $25-million, funded completely by Paul Allen.

New funding comes from British tycoon Richard Branson, who is to fund the successor SpaceShipTwo for his new company Virgin Galactic through a $21 million US deal. During its testing regime, SpaceShipOne set a number of important "firsts", including first privately funded aircraft to exceed Mach 2 and Mach 3, first privately funded spacecraft to exceed 100km altitude and first privately funded reusable spacecraft.

History

SpaceShipOne's patch

SpaceShipOne is registered with the FAA as N328KF. 'N' is the prefix for US-registered aircraft; '328KF' was chosen by Scaled Composites to stand for 328 (k{ilo}) feet (about 100 kilometers, the officially designated edge of space). The original choice of registry number, N100KM, was already taken. N328KF is registered as a glider, reflecting the fact that most of its independent flight is unpowered.

All of its flights were from the Mojave Airport Civilian Flight Test Center.

SpaceShipOne's first flight, 01C, was an unmanned captive carry flight test on May 20 2003. Glide tests followed, starting with flight 03G on August 7, 2003. Its first powered flight, flight 11P, was made on December 17, 2003, the 100th anniversary of the first powered flight.

On April 1, 2004, Scaled Composites received the first license for sub-orbital rocket flights to be issued by the US Department of Transportation. This license permitted the company to conduct powered test flights over the course of one year. On June 17, 2004, Mojave Airport reclassified itself (part-time) as the Mojave Spaceport.

Flight 15P on June 21, 2004, was SpaceShipOne's first spaceflight, and the first privately funded human spaceflight. Ansari X Prize flights followed, with flight 17P on October 4, 2004, winning the prize.

Specifications

All SpaceShipOne flights begin with the White Knight lofting SpaceShipOne to about 14 km, as demonstrated in this captive carry test of the two-vehicle system. The two vehicles have identical cockpits, as can be seen from the pattern of windows.

General characteristics

• Crew: one pilot (capable of taking 3)
• Length: 5 m
• Wingspan: 5 m
• Height:
• Core Diameter: 1.52 m
• Wing area: 15 m²
• Empty: 1,200 kg
• Loaded: 3,600 kg
• Maximum takeoff:
• Powerplant: 1x N₂O/HTPB SpaceDev Hybrid rocket motor, 7,500 kgf (74 kN) thrust. I_sp: 250 s (2.5 km/s) Burn time: 87 seconds

Performance

• Maximum speed: Mach 3.09 (3,518 km/h)
• Range: 65 km
• Service ceiling: 112,000 m
• Rate of climb: 25,000 m/min
• Wing loading: 240 kg/m²
• Thrust-to-Weight: 20 N/kg
• Aspect Ratio: 1.6

**Most info from astronautix.com

Flights

Flights of SpaceShipOne are numbered, starting with flight 01 on May 20 2003. One or two letters are appended to the number to indicate the type of mission. An appended C indicates that the flight was a captive carry, G indicates an unpowered glide, and P indicates a powered flight. If the actual flight differs in category from the intended flight, two letters are appended: the first indicating the intended mission and the second the mission actually performed.

In the table below, the "top speed" reported is the Mach number at burn-out (the end of the rocket burn). This is not an absolute speed.

SpaceShipOne in flight

Astronauts

Astronaut Mike Melvill after the September 29, 2004 spaceflight.

The SpaceShipOne pilots were:

• Brian Binnie
• Mike Melvill
• Doug Shane
• Peter Siebold

The astronauts came from a variety of aerospace backgrounds. Melvill is a test pilot, Binnie was a Navy pilot, and Shane and Siebold are engineers at Scaled Composites. They qualified to fly SpaceShipOne by training on the Tier One flight simulator and in White Knight and other Scaled Composites aircraft.

Afterward

SpaceShipOne now hangs in the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. with the Spirit of Saint Louis and Bell X-1 "Glamorous Glennis"

SpaceShipOne's spaceflights were watched by large crowds at Mojave Spaceport. A fourth suborbital flight, Flight 18P, was originally scheduled for October 13, 2004. However, Burt Rutan decided not to risk damage to the historic craft, and cancelled it and all future flights. It is assumed that SpaceShipOne will never fly on its own again.

On July 25, 2005 SpaceShipOne landed at the Oshkosh Airshow in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. After the airshow, the aircraft was flown to the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum to be put on display. It was unveiled on Wednesday October 5, 2005 in the Milestones of Flight gallery and is now on display to the public in the main atrium between the Spirit of St. Louis and the Bell X-1.

A piece of SpaceShipOne's carbon fiber material was launched aboard the New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt.[1]

SpaceShipOne became a popular model rocket in 2004. Estes Industries currently offers several flying model rockets of SpaceShipOne.

See also

• Scaled Composites SpaceShipTwo
• Scaled Composites SpaceShipThree
• Scaled Composites White Knight
• List of spaceflights (2004)

External links

• Tier One home page at Scaled Composites's website
  • Flight profile in PDF format and in JPG format
• SpaceDev
• SpaceShipOne video footage of flight 14P
• Private Craft to Shoot for Space by Irene Mona Klotz, Discovery News
• Wired News: SpaceShipOne Back on Course
• SpaceShipOne's FAA registration
• The Ansari X Prize
• SpaceShipOne documentary DVD - Mojave Magic
  • Song I Want To Go In A Space Ship about SpaceShipOne from Mojave Magic
  • Video of Burt Rutan singing the song at the 2005 Oshkosh airshow

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