SpaceShipOne
- May 20, 2003 ( with carrier aircraft )
- August 27, 2003 ( gliding )
- December 17, 2003 ( with engine ignition)
The SpaceShipOne (also Scaled Model 316 ) was an experimental aircraft with rocket engine of the company Scaled Composites for private or commercial, manned suborbital space flight to about 100 km altitude.
History and use
The space plane was developed by the company Scaled Composites, under the Tier One project, in order to decide the contest Ansari X-Prize of the X Prize Foundation itself can. This turned ten million U.S. dollars for those in prospect, the first transport of an aircraft next to the pilot two people or corresponding ballast to a height of more than 100 kilometers and this would repeat the same aircraft within 14 days. Developer of the aircraft was Burt Rutan. The project was funded by Paul Allen, a co-founder of Microsoft.
The first flight of the machine took place on 20 May 2003, where she remained connected throughout the flight yet with the carrier aircraft. The first gliding flight followed on 27 August 2003, the first flight with engine on 17 December 2003, was exceeded Mach 1. Thus SpaceShipOne broke through the first plane to a private company that has been built without public funds, the sound barrier. On 8 April 2004, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a valid for one year approval for the aircraft. It was admitted as a non- self-launching sailplane with auxiliary drive.
First manned private space flight
On 21 June 2004, the carrier aircraft White Knight started at 15:47 CEST clock ( clock 06:47 local time) before the eyes of thousands of spectators from the Mojave Air & Space Port in the same desert in California and brought SpaceShipOne initially to a height of 14.3 kilometers, where it was notched. Then the pilot Michael Melvill lit the rocket motor, which should accelerate the aircraft to climb up to three times the speed of sound, then the parabolic flight to reach an altitude of around 109 kilometers.
However, it faced some technical difficulties. Thus, a part of the aircraft trim deformed with a bang, which was also perceived by the pilot. There was an error in the attitude control system and the aircraft began to roll uncontrollably. After activating a security system, the trajectory could be stabilized without a briefly -considered aborted flights had to be done. Since the rocket engine was ignited for 76 instead of the planned 80 seconds and thus SpaceShipOne reached a lower than planned speed, it came from his course and remained under the originally planned height.
Nevertheless, it was on the historic flight, the altitude of 100 kilometers - the action from the FAI boundary of space - almost exceeded. The flight is the first private manned space flight in history.
After switching off the engine at about 55 kilometers above the spacecraft followed in purely ballistic flight of a parabola, during which the pilot for about three and a half minutes could experience weightlessness.
Ansari X-Prize
→ Main article: Ansari X-Prize
On 29 September 2004, the spacecraft reached an altitude of just over 100 kilometers. The flight over the Mojave Desert in California lasted from 07:11 bis 08:39 clock PDT ( 14:11 bis 15:39 clock UTC). At an altitude of 14 kilometers, the aircraft at 08:09 clock was disengaged from the carrier aircraft.
During the ascent, there were minor problems that expressed in violent rolling motion of the aircraft. According to the statements of the pilot Michael Melvill this may have been due to a handling error on his part. The supply of the rocket engine was then switched off - eleven seconds earlier than planned. The impulse, the aircraft still won but to altitude and finally reached 102.9 km above the ground.
The successful second flight within a period of two weeks SpaceShipOne won on 4 October 2004 the Ansari X-Prize. Pilot on the second flight was Brian Binnie.
Exhibition
SpaceShipOne is in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC issued. It has thus found its resting place in the same building as Burt Rutan's Voyager already, John Glenn's Mercury capsule and land the Command Module of Apollo 11.
A copy of the SpaceShipOne hangs above a staircase in the Google headquarters, the Googleplex in Mountain View. Google co-founder Larry Page is a self-confessed Weltraumfan.
Commercial suborbital space flights
After the success of SpaceShipOne SpaceShipTwo was developed as a successor model, which serves much more powerful White Knight Two as a carrier aircraft. First gliding flights of SpaceShipTwo took place in 2010. The end of 2013 should complete the first space flight it was originally. SpaceShipTwo is designed for two pilots and up to six passengers. Furthermore, there is a concept of suborbital point - to-point flights, its implementation, however, is questionable with SpaceShipThree.
Technology
SpaceShipOne is not designed for flights in Earth orbit since its maximum speed is only about one-seventh of this necessary first cosmic speed.
The spacecraft reached during an up to 84 -second burn time of the engine speeds up to Mach 3.5. It has a built by the U.S. company SpaceDev hybrid rocket engine, the combustion chamber containing the solid propellant HTPB ( hydroxyl - terminated poly -butadiene, like tire rubber ). From a tank as a liquid oxidant nitrous oxide (N2O, nitrous oxide ) is added and the combustion out over an arc is started, after which the solid burns from the inside. The Laval nozzle is arranged in a classic construction and can be reused together with the tank; only the fuel has to be replaced.
At the start, the aircraft, similar to the singer, supported by a carrier aircraft such as the white knight at an altitude of about 15 km and notched there. Then ignite the rocket engine of SpaceShipOne and drives the vehicle for about three and a half minutes on a ballistic trajectory, up to about 100 kilometers above the upper layer of the atmosphere is reached where the space also officially begins. At this height, the space already appears as a black space and the Earth as a blue glowing ball.
The re-entry into the atmosphere support a folding mechanism that pops the support and tail surfaces and makes pass the spacecraft into a tumbling descent. Based on the natural model wind flying plant seeds as the maple, this phase is called "feather -configuration ". A control is possible in this phase of flight only to a small extent. Due to the relatively low speeds of Suborbitalflugs that remain in achieving the maximum speed thin air and by the low rate of descent, the thermal stresses, so that no costly materials or heat shields are necessary low.
In about 20 kilometers above the wings are again aligned parallel to the fuselage and a classic controlled gliding flight begins. The landing is conventional; The chassis consists of two single wheels equipped with frosted main landing gear legs under the center fuselage and a skid plate under the fuselage nose. It is moved down by a spring mechanism and can not be recovered again during the flight.
Start list
See source.