Tampa Bay Online June 21, 2004
Private Space Flight Is Go For Launch
By Kurt Loft
TAMPA - Since astronaut Alan Shepard blasted into the history books atop a Redstone rocket in 1961, America's manned space program has been fueled entirely by NASA.
The high costs and complexity of sending people into space required government backing, and those subsidies in turn made sure nobody else got into the business.
Until now.
If all goes well beginning about 9:30 a.m. today, a privately developed craft will shoot skyward to become the world's first commercial manned space vehicle. SpaceShipOne will attempt the first nongovernment, piloted flight to leave Earth's atmosphere.
The ship was designed and built by famed aviator Burt Rutan and was inspired by a worldwide competition that will award $10 million to the first company that successfully launches three people into suborbital space two times within two weeks. So far, more than two dozen teams from seven nations plan to compete.
``I think this can be a new industry and a new era of spaceflight,'' Rutan said from his headquarters in California's Mojave Desert. ``We understand the significance of a private company doing manned spaceflight, and I believe within 15 years people can buy a ticket to take this flight.''
The competition, called the X Prize, aims to promote commercial space ventures and tourism. The program is run by a nonprofit foundation in St. Louis and is financed by contributors who include technology entrepreneurs Anousheh and Amir Ansari, author Tom Clancy and Erik Lindbergh, a grandson of aviator Charles Lindbergh.
Ultimately, the competition could lead to affordable access to space and a market for space tourists. Rutan believes a two-hour, suborbital luxury ride at first would cost about $40,000 a person, then drop to about $10,000 as the technology markets itself.
Rutan's company, Scaled Composites, is considered the front-runner for the X Prize, in part because of Rutan's experience and financial backing. He made headlines in 1986 with Voyager, the first airplane to circumnavigate the globe without refueling, and since has worked on a number of aviation projects. (His brother Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager were aboard the historic Voyager flight.)
Burt Rutan also is flush with project cash. His business partner, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, invested $20 million in SpaceShipOne. The Federal Aviation Administration has given a one-year license to Rutan's project.
The craft won't launch like a conventional rocket. A turbojet called White Knight will ferry SpaceShipOne to 50,000 feet, then turn it loose above the California desert. The ship will fire its engine and ascend to at least 62 miles, considered the edge of space. It will top speeds of Mach 3 going straight up, then glide home and land where it started.
SpaceShipOne won't compete in the X Prize until later in the year. The competition rules say a team must successfully launch three people to a suborbital altitude of 62 miles on two consecutive flights within two weeks. Although today's test flight will include a solo pilot, SpaceShipOne has three seats - room for two passengers on future missions.
On Sunday, Rutan and Allen announced the name of the pilot: Mike Melvill, 62. Melvill, a veteran civilian test pilot, holds records for altitude and speed in various classes of aircraft.
Rutan is confident he will be the first to meet the X Prize challenge.
``Everyone has this impression that it's impossible for the little guy to play this game and that only NASA and the Russians and Chinese can go into space,'' he said. ``The main reason I want to do this isn't to win the prize, but to prove it can be done by a little company like mine.''
Rutan's team has made 14 test flights, encountering no serious problems. On its last test in May, SpaceShipOne flew to an altitude of 40 miles before making a flawless landing on a Mojave runway.
``Every time SpaceShipOne flies, we demonstrate that relatively modest amounts of private funding can increase the boundaries of commercial space technology,'' Allen said at the time.
SpaceShipOne isn't designed to go into orbit like space shuttles or Air Force rockets. Its suborbital flight path means the craft leaves the atmosphere but doesn't reach the speed needed to orbit the Earth, said John Pike, a space expert and director of GlobalSecurity.org.
``It may or may not develop into an extreme sport, and they may actually make a little money in the process,'' Pike said. ``But it doesn't have any connection to real spaceflight.''
The X Prize competition is commendable, but it may not lead to significant economic breakthroughs in space, said Edward Ellegood, director of Florida Space Research Institute near Titusville.
``The Rutan flight is interesting, but I have reservations about whether these kinds of activities will revolutionize space transportation,'' he said. ``Tourism flights might attract customers for joy rides into suborbital space, but they aren't designed to go into orbit or carry payloads into space.''
Ellegood added that suborbital flights are a niche market: ``The larger issue is cost- effective access to orbit.''
It will never become cost-effective if governments continue to dominate the business of manned space, argued Paula Berinstein,author of ``Making Space Happen: Private Space Ventures and the Visionaries Behind Them.'' America's government-run space program, she said, has done little to encourage entrepreneurial spirit.
``By dampening competition,'' Berinstein said, NASA ``caused costs to remain high and effectively kept the technologies from being developed.''
In contrast to the manned program, the commercial satellite industry is a thriving private industry that continues to grow with market demands. Last year, global revenue from communications satellites topped $91 billion, according to the Satellite Industry Association in Alexandria, Va.
But putting people in space remains an insular endeavor, Rutan said, and a single accident can shut things down.
``It's ludicrous to think that in the last two years there's been less flying [of astronauts] than in the first two years of the space program,'' he said. ``Can you imagine any example in an industry of less going on now than in its first two years?''
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. Reporter Kurt Loft can be reached at (813) 259-7570.
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