spaceship one

Richard Lamb wrote
NOW (finally) we might get a better story that the
silly superficial questions asked by the news media.

How about this Richard: America has returned to manned space
launches... and it's not NASA!

We rocked around in an RV all night in 40 kt winds the night before
and were worried that the launch was going to be scrubbed. But
luckily high pressure was over the area and wind died down right
before taxi out. My friend Bubba flew Richard Branson in to Mojave in
a high dollar three blade helo and then landed him back on the top of
the theme restaurant at LAX (he just can't seem to make a low profile
entry anywhere!) William Shantner was supposedly there as well as Buzz
Aldrin. Most of the event was covered by a local FM station but they
screwed it up pretty bad so we just listened to the scanner. The wind
was still blowing stiff after t/o on top of our RV so I missed a lot
of the air to air conversation, but if anybody wants, I'll try to
narrate what I saw in detail. The test pilot community let me in on a
little secret: a major control failure occurred during launch and the
gyro Rutan used for attitude control tumbled (lost alignment.) This
caused an unplanned departure from the vertical profile. Mike M. took
over manually and saved the son of a bitch just in time! However,
this S-turn maneuver put them over 20 miles off course on the re-entry
window! They still made the downwind gear-down position no sweat. I'm
surprised they didn't relate this drama to the media (did they?) since
it kind of parallels John Glenn's re-entry problems (except this was
on launch.) Rutan plans to go into orbit next. Maybe if the media
isn't smart enough to know about this it's better; I just don't know.

I worried that the shuttle cock had to work perfectly twice in a row
and felt like this was a 50/50 operation. Burt had told an engineer
who works for him when the project began: "The problem with NASA is
that they're not killing enough astronauts." Burt is a genius in my
mind because he is willing to hang it way out there and try things no
one else would dare. For example: the attitude control system when
the vehicle is out of the atmosphere is just compressed air! What
would happen if a little moisture froze up the attitude air valves?
The whole thing was a complete cliff hanger! It is equivalent in my
mind to watching the Mayflower disappear over the horizon bound for
the new world. I'll never forget it.

pacplyer