Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne

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

SpaceShipOne is an experimental air-launched suborbital spaceplane that uses a hybrid rocket motor. The design features a unique "shuttlecock" reentry system where the rear half of the wing and the twin tail booms folds upward along a hinge running the length of the wing; this increases 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 largely 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 is registered with the FAA as . 'N' is the prefix for US-registered aircraft; '328KF' was chosen by Scaled Composites to stand for 328000 (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 have been 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 permited 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

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 flights**
Flight	Date	Top speed	Altitude	Duration	Pilot
01C	May 20 2003			1 h 48 min	unmanned
02C	July 29 2003			2 h 06 min	Mike Melvill
03G	August 7 2003			0 h 19 min	Mike Melvill
04GC	August 27 2003			1 h 06 min	Mike Melvill
05G	August 27 2003			10 min 30 s	Mike Melvill
06G	September 23 2003			12 min 15 s	Mike Melvill
07G	October 17 2003			17 min 49 s	Mike Melvill
08G	November 14 2003			19 min 55 s	Peter Siebold
09G	November 19 2003			12 min 25 s	Mike Melvill
10G	December 4 2003			13 min 14 s	Brian Binnie
11P	December 17 2003	Mach 1.2	20.7 km	18 min - 10 s	Brian Binnie
12G	March 11 2004			18 min - 30 s	Peter Siebold
13P	April 8 2004	Mach 1.6	32.0 km	16 min 27 s	Peter Siebold
14P	May 13 2004	Mach 2.5	64.3 km	20 min - 44 s	Mike Melvill
15P	June 21 2004	Mach 2.9	100.1 km	24 min 05 s	Mike Melvill
16P	September 29 2004	Mach 2.92	102.9 km	24 min 11 s	Mike Melvill
17P	October 4 2004	Mach 3.09	112.0 km	23 min 56 s	Brian Binnie

Astronauts

The SpaceShipOne pilots are:

The astronauts come 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 have qualified to fly SpaceShipOne by training on the Tier One flight simulator and in White Knight and other Scaled Composites aircraft.

Results

SpaceShipOne's spaceflights have been watched by large crowds at Mojave Spaceport. 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.

Flight 18P of SpaceShipOne was a spaceflight in the Tier One program that was anticipated to take place on October 13 2004.

Future flights of SpaceShipOne are no longer anticipated to occur, however an extensive flight program was originally envisioned to proceed after the X2 flight, before retirement to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. However, it appears that Burt Rutan decided not to risk damage to the historic craft.

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

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

External links

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