This will probably be OBE by the time most of you read it, but this is
the latest I have after the news conference today.
The White Knight taxi for takeoff is scheduled for 0630 and launch of
SpaceShipOne is still scheduled for approximately 0730 -- California time.
Landing and recovery will be about 0755. Contrary to at least one Los
Angeles television station, Melville is still the pilot. Dick Rutan will NOT
be flying in any of the aircraft, including chase planes.
Although this flight will be aimed at the Ansari XPrize, Burt Rutan
said, "... it is only the next stage in opening the envelope for the space
craft. The main goal is to go faster than Mach 3.5, straight up." It just
happens that the computer predicts an altitude more than 328KFt. Rutan said
the predictions show a max altitude of more than 420,000 if the engine is
allowed to expend all the fuel. For this flight, thrust will be terminated
with approximately 20% fuel remaining.
To a question about working with NASA on this project, Rutan said
SpaceShipOne wouldn't fly for another three years if he'd done that. He said
NASA didn't find out about the project until they saw the television news
about the roll-out.

Go Melville!!