into the wild black yonder

into the wild black yonder

Clark Lindsey has a roundup of links about SpaceShipOne's inaugural Ansari X-Prize attempt today... the rockets should kick in in about 10 minutes or so.

Live webcast here

update: that was the coolest fucking thing I have ever seen. 358000 feet, they broke the record of the X-15. Way to go Mike Melville; high five, Paul Allen... and Burt Rutan, if I was a woman and at Mojave, I'd be kissing you right now. Congratulations guys, well done.

upperdate: Touchdown, a beautiful landing. Mike Melville is one helluva pilot; he kept the nose pointed straight up even though there was a slight roll in the spaceship during launch - it rolled about 30 times or so on the way up. He then brought it under control using the reaction control system while in space, feathering the wings during the rolls. Then he rode her all the way into suborbital space, breaking the altitude record of the X-15, and brought her down safely. Picture-perfect... I'm grinning from ear to ear.

Now all they have to do is repeat the same feat on Monday, in the same craft, and they win 10 million bucks. The giggle factor is gone.

Fuckin A.

uppestdate: an excellent blow-by-blow of the launch can be found here.