Mission X1 29th September 2004, Mojave Airport and Civilian Aerospace Test Center, California, USA.

By John Brodie-Good / WildWings Travel

The X-Prize “It’s time we all get a chance to go”

The stars twinkled in the desert night sky as the bus roared along the highway heading for our destination, Mojave Airport. After seven long years of believing, I was finally going to witness an affordable way to get to Space, for ordinary people like you and me to be able to gaze down upon mother Earth with our own eyes, surely one of life’s greatest potential experiences?

A row of trucks with satellite dishes and glaring spotlights greeted us as we turned into the parking area, the world’s media. Above us in the dark I could make out the futuristic hangers of a failed private space craft company. Today and the following Monday were not going to be days for failure. Already the X-Prize VIP area was humming with people, it was only 5am, but a great air of expectancy was in the air. The smell of coffee wafted through the still cool night, dawn was over an hour away. Displays of other space ship designs had been set up with information boards, whilst above us, a huge X-Prize banner adorned the control tower. A small stage with an overhead screen had already started the morning’s presentations with the history of the X-Prize, the screen to be used for live feed from above us later on.

We stood leaning on the fence overlooking the taxiways and runways and waited for the sun and White Knight. Mojave Airport has become a centre for the U.S. private Space industry with a number of teams based here. It is also a storage facility for airliners currently not required for service by their owners. Hundreds of aircraft, their engines and undercarriage shrink-wrapped, sat out in every direction, DC10s, 747s, A310s, DC9s, 737s from many airlines around the world. Crews fire up each aircraft’s engines every three weeks to keep them in flying condition.

‘White Knight is taxiing’ crackled over the tannoy system and all eyes went to the left. The sun had just lifted above the horizon to our right. Our choice of spot proved perfect as hundreds of people now stood behind us. Soon the sound of high-pitched jet engines could be heard and there they were, the legendary White Knight carrier aircraft with SpaceShipOne slung tightly underneath. Both craft gleamed white with their black starburst decals looking very cool in the early morning light. I sensed an immediate sense of purpose as they quickly passed by, close in front of us and disappeared out of view to the right, past the media and then the public beyond them. Whilst the mated craft do look like something out of a science fiction book they also look ‘right’ (and ‘sexy’ according to some of the ladies!) The chase planes then came past, a small single engined camera plane, a strange twin engined support plane (the props faced backwards!) and a small jet for high altitude use. These took off first and much to our delight, directly in front of us. A few minutes later a big murmur came through the crowd as White Knight had finally commenced her take-off run. Sure enough, she soon appeared from our right, rapidly gaining speed. The wheels left the ground directly in front of us as she powered off into the pale blue sky. They banked away from us and started the long climb to altitude for separation. We watched for some minutes as they climbed in the wide sky above us, the two prop chase planes in close attendance. It would take nearly an hour and so time for a bagel and coffee and to soak in the unique atmosphere of this major gathering of the Space Tourism tribes. Back to our spot at the railings and glancing upwards into the sky. When the joined aircraft reach 48,000 feet and all systems are go, SpaceShipOne will be released from White Knight, the rocket motor armed and then fired. ‘Three minutes to separation’. “There it is!” shouted an American voice just behind me, suddenly, a white line appeared in the sky almost directly overhead, I got onto it through my now tripod mounted camera and started firing off shots. I could see the flame from the rocket burn as the white line was now really streaking up into the sky, that thing is moving! We shouted ‘Go!’ with the crowd. Within a few seconds SpaceShipOne was gone, travelling at Mach 3, a long thin white line of dissipating smoke high above us. The big screen above the stage suddenly came back to life and there was the curvature of the Earth, SpaceShipOne was in space, just minutes after separation from White Knight, now at 337,600 feet above us, awesome! Mike Melvill the pilot turned astronaut for the second time this year, enjoying the ultimate view, having time to pick up his camera and take a series of stunning images which will be published soon. A huge cheer went up when it was announced he had (unofficially) achieved the minimum altitude required for this historic first attempt at the US$10million X-Prize. We watched spellbound for a minute or two and then saw the angle start to change, SSOne was performing its unique feathering operation for a smooth and safe return to Earth. Gravity would cause Mike to enjoy a 5G maximum ride back down. The screen went black again and we waited. After a few more minutes another shout and high in the sky above us something glinted white. A double distant sonic boom heralded SSOne’s safe return into the atmosphere and her stunning shape could now be clearly seen still high above us, descending in circles with her two chase planes. Mike dropped the rear gear and the front skid and turned for landing, a perfect smooth touchdown, and again right in front of us, running on down the runaway away to our left. A minute or so later White Knight came flying low over the runway from the left, and roared away in a power climb into the sun, celebration time! She too came back down for a perfect landing, followed by a cool fly past and landing by the three chase planes. What a show and it wasn’t quite over yet.

SpaceShipOne was being towed by a large 4 x 4 and came to a halt yards in front of us, side on. The tailgate of the pickup open with a smiling Burt Rutan and Paul Allen sitting and waving to the crowds. The really historical flight was June 21st 2004, the same ships and the same location.

“ It was like nothing I’d ever saw before…….you really do get the feeling that you have touched the face of God”
Mike Melvill (SpaceShipOne pilot/astronaut 21st June 2004)

Back in 1992 I took my then ten year old daughter to Florida. We did the usual touristy things and then one morning found ourselves heading out to Cape Kennedy and it’s space facilities (and Black Skimmers which I nailed in the car park!) We admired the Saturn 5 rockets that took man to the moon and enjoyed the other displays. I can just remember watching the men on the moon as a boy. A Space Shuttle could be seen in the distance, being prepared for it’s next mission. We paid the extra $5 for the IMAX movie, called ‘Beautiful Planet’ I think and sat in our seats. In an IMAX cinema the screen fills your vision giving very effective results with certain material. This movie was basically footage shot by astronauts in orbit around the Earth. I was moved to tears by the beauty of what we saw, the colours and hues of the land and the oceans, the weather systems, the fragility of it all, seeing it with your own eyes must be the ultimate natural history experience. Fast forward to late 1997 and I got word of the world’s first space tour operators, both to be based in the US, Zegram Space Voyages and Space Adventures. I never forgot that footage and suddenly for the first time in my life it dawned on me, I could go too….. I quickly learnt that money for funding rather than technology was the real issue in reducing the cost of access to space. Less than 500 people have flown so far, including two with Space Adventures, the first of many. I discovered that there were teams of people around the world trying to raise money to build and fly their privately designed space craft (www.spacefuture.com). In 1998 WildWings took the first British sub-orbital space flight deposit, from Dr Madsen Pirie of London. We flew our first clients to the Edge of Space in a MiG25 and in weightlessness during one of our specially chartered Zero-Gravity flights. In 2000 I went to Moscow and flew Zero-G myself. U.S. Astronauts Charlie Walker and Norm Thagard came to the UK and assisted us, entrancing our clients who met them with their ‘knowing auras’, warmth, friendliness and willingness to share some of the best experiences of their life with us, stories of their space flights. In 2001 Dennis Tito became the world’s first space tourist, our partner’s Space Adventures brokering his flight. Spending days in orbit, camera in hand, listening to his favorite opera music, he said again this evening that he still thinks about his space flight every day and always will, ten days of euphoria and being an astronaut with the memories for rest of his life. But still no vehicle for the forthcoming ‘affordable’ space flights we had been marketing for some years now and the years were really starting to roll by. April 2003 and the world was stunned inside a small hanger at Mojave Airport by a company called Scaled Composites. Two years of secret work comprised a complete sub-orbital space flight system, Tier 1. A conventional jet-powered carrier aircraft called White Knight, a small rocket-powered craft dubbed SpaceShipOne and the refueling and support equipment needed, designed by Burt on a napkin and put together by a core team of just over twenty people. Less than 18 months later they gob-smacked us all by blasting off into space, first time. Without sounding like an anorak, Burt Rutan will go down as a major player in the annuals of aviation history, his importance cannot be understated. He has designed a continual series of aircraft, all of which have flown including Voyager, which flew non-stop around the world and is far from finished yet. The words genius and people’s hero most definitely apply, the guy’s a major dude. After he has built Virgin their SpaceShipTwos (‘larger’ versions of SpaceShipOne) he is widely tipped to be looking at an orbital project (and a new US$50million America’s Space Prize has just been announced, for the first privately built and flown orbital vehicle). Today is SSOne’s second space flight, British-born 62 year old test pilot/astronaut Mike Melvill jumped out of the open hatch onto the tarmac, his smile said it all. A short press conference followed on a podium, Mike joined by Burt, Peter Diamandis from the X-Prize and financial backer Paul Allen. I could see through the open hatch into SSOne, banks of buttons and the green cushions Mike lay on as he flew. Burt held a small potted plant aloft, which seemed fine after it’s space flight. They needed ballast equivalent to two people and had invited all their employees to give them something to fly to space so a motley collection of items had earned their astronaut wings including a teddy bear from a UK charity.

The following sunny Monday afternoon I am walking along St Martin’s Lane in London’s West End, the office call on my mobile “ They’ve lit the rocket……..he’s going straight up, past 160,000 feet……….” I hear a roar from the crowd on the live internet link in the background, ”350,000 feet….they done it, SpaceShipOne has won the X-Prize!’

It will be our turn soon, contact me soon if you want to reserve your place in history today.

“ It’s a fantastic view; it’s a fantastic feeling. There is a freedom and sense of wonder – I tell you what – you all need to experience it”
Brian Binnie (SpaceShipOne pilot/astronaut Mission X2 4th October 2004)

www.scaled.com


GO!.

All images JBG.