22-10-2012, 04:41 PM
Flight Testing
ABSTRACT
SpaceShipOne achieved an altitude goal of 100 km on June 21. Pilot Mike Melvill was awarded astronaut wings for this
feat. Following a launch from the White Knight at 47,000 ft over Mojave, the hybrid rocket engine of SpaceShipOne burned
for 76 sec during its climb to altitude. The aircraft reached Mach 2.9 and, after rocket burnout at 180.000 it. coasted upward
to an apogee at 328.491 ft. Melvill experienced weightlessness for over 3 min as he flew a ballistic arc to reentry. Putting the
vehicle into a feathered, or high-drag, configuration, he experienced Mach 2.9 and 5 g in the almost-vertical descent. A second
flight on September 29 reached an altitude of 62 mi., the first of two flights required to qualify for the $10-million Ansari
X-Prize. On October 4, the team repeated the flight, enabling designer Burt Rutan and financier Paul Allen to claim the prize.