eAC team with Burt Rutan

Landing

Photos taken by Jeff Foust during the rollout of the White Knight & SpaceShipOne

Rutan shoots for the stars with SpaceShipOne
by Jeff Foust

Famous aircraft designer Burt Rutan ended months of speculation Friday when he publicly unveiled an aircraft and a spacecraft that together offer what his company calls "the first private manned space program."

At an event attended by several hundred journalists and invited guests at the headquarters of Rutan's company, Scaled Composites, in Mojave, California, Rutan displayed for the first time both the SpaceShipOne rocket-powered suborbital vehicle and the White Knight aircraft that will carry it aloft. Guests of the event ranged from Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin and Apollo-era spacecraft designer Max Faget to space tourist Dennis Tito and balloonist Steve Fossett.

Rutan, fighting laryngitis during his speech, said he is developing this private spacecraft now in the hopes of igniting a "renaissance" in spacecraft development similar to the one seen in aviation between 1909-1912. While by 1908 only the pilots had flown, by the end of this three-year aviation renaissance hundreds of aircraft types had been developed and thousands of pilots had flown. The development of a private suborbital spacecraft could create a similar renaissance in spaceflight to end the decades of stagnation in government-run programs, Rutan said.

Work on the concept started back in April 1996, inspired in large part by the X Prize. Design work started about three and a half years ago, and full development of both vehicles commenced in April 2001. The first test flight of the White Knight aircraft took place on August 1, 2002; photos of that were published by Aviation Week shortly thereafter, leading to speculation about Rutan's plans, but the veil of secrecy surrounding the program remained largely in place until Friday's event.

As currently planned, SpaceShipOne will be carried aloft attached to the underside of the White Knight. At an altitude of 15,000 meters, SpaceShipOne will separate, ignite its rocket motor, and go into a steep climb. The vehicle would achieve a peak speed of about Mach 3 and climb to an altitude of 100 kilometers. SpaceShipOne would make a similarly-steep descent before leveling out at about 24,000 meters and gliding to a runway landing, less than 70 kilometers downrange from the launch point.

An unusual design feature of SpaceShipOne reduces the heating loads of the vehicle on reentry. Before reentry begins, the vehicle raises the trailing edge of its wing, along with its twin tails, to more than a 60-degree angle to the horizontal. This "carefree" reentry mode, Rutan said, is designed to put the spacecraft into a "superstable" configuration that is far more forgiving to trajectory errors than the space shuttle or the X-15. The wing and tail sections are rotated back to the horizontal position at 24,000 meters to allow the vehicle to glide to a landing.

SpaceShipOne will be powered by a single hybrid-propellant rocket engine, using nitrous oxide oxidizer and rubber fuel. Much of the propulsion system will not be developed by Scaled; as Rutan noted, "we're not rocket scientists here." With propulsion systems from major engine developers too expensive, and concerned about putting such a critical system in the hands of a single, small company, Scaled is instead running a competition. Two companies, Environmental Aerosciences Corporation and SpaceDev, are each developing and testing engines, one of which will be selected for use on SpaceShipOne. Rutan would not disclose when he would select a winning design, but a source with one of the competing companies said that a decision would likely come late this year.

The timeline for the whole SpaceShipOne flight test program is also shrouded in secrecy. Rutan hinted that the first phase of the flight test program, captive carry test flights where SpaceShipOne is carried aloft under White Knight but not released, would begin in the very near future, with glide tests taking place afterwards in the next few months. However, Rutan refused to disclose any schedule for later flight tests, or even when the first rocket-powered flight or first flight into space would take place. Part of that reticence to disclose information, Rutan explained, is because "we just don't know yet" how many test flights will be required.

Indeed, the shroud of secrecy that has surrounded this program prior to Friday's event will likely remain in place for the foreseeable future. "We're not going to have any press conferences during the test regime," Rutan said. Instead, Scaled will post a monthly summary of the events that took place in the last month of the test program, but not what is scheduled to take place in the next month. "We'll tell what we have done, not what we're going to do," he said.

Rutan also left open questions about the long-term status of the SpaceShipOne program. He made it clear that SpaceShipOne is not a commercial vehicle, and even though it is an X Prize competitor there are no plans to sell seats on flights to paying passengers, or use it for other commercial purposes. Rutan said he plans to flight test the vehicle to determine what the cost is to operate it, and possibly use that as the basis for other vehicles.

Rutan also declined to discuss the cost of the program, although when asked he said that winning the $10 million X Prize would not allow SpaceShipOne to pay for itself. Scaled documents provided at the event state that the cost of the program is projected to be "close to a Soyuz ride", suggesting something on the order of $20 million. Rutan didn't disclose the source of his funding, only to say that when he went out to look for money shortly after starting the program two years ago he "immediately found it."

Overall, while White Knight and SpaceShipOne are definitely private vehicles, the overall feel for the venture was one that was far more research and development oriented than commercial. "Fun is more important that profit," Rutan quipped at one point. He said his chief motivation was not winning the X Prize but laying claim to the title of the first private manned spaceflight, a feat that he hoped would inspire others to develop vehicles that would inaugurate a renaissance in space flight similar to the one in aviation. "Even if there's only a tiny bit of what we did that inspires others," he said, "then that's everything."

April 18, 2003
Burt Rutan rolls out
"History's First Private Manned Space Program"

The White Knight airborne launcher in a test flight.

Today in Mojave, California Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites company rolls out their two stage suborbital transportation system to compete for the X PRIZE and to serve the space tourism market. According to the company:

Top photo shows the rocket powered second stage - SpaceShipOne - slung below the launcher. Lower photo shows a cockpit view.

"This event will show not just dreams or mockups in search of funding, but an extensive two-year-old research program including all new hardware: airborne launcher, spaceship, rocket propulsion, avionics, simulator and ground support elements." "Scaled Composites, the most prolific research aircraft development company in the world, is tired of waiting for others to provide affordable human space access. Active and hidden for two years, an aggressive, manned sub-orbital space program has been in work in the Mojave, CA desert. "The event is not about dreams, predictions or mockups. We will show actual flight hardware: an aircraft for high-altitude airborne launch, a flight-ready manned spaceship, a new, ground-tested rocket propulsion system and much more. This is not just the development of another research aircraft, but a complete manned space program with all its support elements.

"The unveiling is not a marketing event. We are not seeking funding and are not selling anything. We are in the middle of an important research program - to see if manned space access can be done by other than the expensive government programs. After the unveiling, we will go back into hiding to complete the flight tests and conduct the space flights."

"The event will include a flight demonstration and opportunity to inspect and photograph a new, never-seen spaceship" and present "unique rocket propulsion hardware, conduct interviews, and [...] a technical Q & A session." Cliff Robertson will be the MC.

Editors note 1: I received an invitation to this event (thanks Burt!!) but unfortunately I could not attend. Instead Jeff Foust of spacetoday.net took my invitation and will post a report here over the weekend.

Editors note 2: With this debut of a privately developed suborbital passenger transportation system and with the launch by the end of the year of a privately developed unmanned orbital system at SpaceX, are we really so far from low cost commercial passenger transportation to orbit?? Looks like construction of the stairway to orbit is well underway.

Update: The Scaled site provides a lot of info but it's hard to reach at the moment due to the posting at Slashdot about the rollout. However, here are some miscellaneous items from what I was able to download:

• * The SpaceShipOne "wings are folded up to provide a shuttle-cock or "feather" effect to help stabilize the vehicle for reentry." The "'Care-Free' configuration allows a 'hands-off reentry and greatly reduces aero/thermal loads.
• * Everything reusable except they will "replace the fuel casing and nozzle between high altitude flights."
• SpaceShipOne uses hybrid propulsion with nitrous oxide and rubber propellent and an ablative nozzle.
• Thiolol and AAE Aerospace are assisting Scaled in making the composite nitrous tank and case/throat/nozzle.
• Spacedev, which entered hybrid development after buying rights to the technology of AMROC a few years ago, and Environmental Aerosciences (parent of Hypertech, which makes high power rocketry hybirds) are "being competed" to develop the motor and plumbing components.
• One picture shows a ground test of the motor system so it seems fairly far along even though its still "being competed".
• Winged design allows for glide landing.
• "Designed for a 'shirt-sleeve' environment, the 60" [~1.8m] diameter cabin has a space-qualified ECS [Environmental Control System] and dualpane windows."
• The White Knight and SpaceShipOne have identical cockpit and systems "allowing component flight-qualification testing and realistic pilot training."

Other articles & sites:

• eAc - Environmental Aeroscience - Tier I
• SpaceDev in Historic Private Manned Space Program - Spacedev - Apr.18.03
• FAQ posted at Slashdot - The Rutan SpaceShipOne Revealed
• Space Adventures Congratulates Burt Rutan And Scaled Composites On Development Of SpaceShipOne Sub-Orbital Space Vehicle: As Space Tourism Makes A Step Forward, Space Adventures' Sub-Orbital Clients Renew Their Commitment To Fly To Space - Space Adventures - Apr.18.03
• Passenger-Carrying Spaceship Makes Desert Debut By Leonard David - Space.com - April.18.03
• Commercial Manned Space Program Unveiled by Scaled Composites - Spaceref - April.18.03