SpaceShip One

wrote in message
...
I'm going. I'm taking Monday off from work so I can head out there the
night
before. It'll be a long night, but worth it in my opinion. One thing I've
been wondering though - how big is this thing going to be? I envision it
either being a dozen people standing around at dawn, or the the biggest
event Mojave airport has ever seen. Any idea where it's going to fall
between those two extremes?


Well, every motel room in Mojave has been booked for that date since
the day after the first press release. But then, there are only five motels.

Incidently, someone came into my workplace today (an electronics store here
in Southern CA) and idly asked me while he was getting a few things "you
keep up with what's going on at Mojave?" We got to talking about it, of
course. He said report has it that upwards of 30,000 people might be there.
Heh, cool.....


-Tony
Student Pilot


"Casey Wilson" wrote...

tony wrote:
I'm going. I'm taking Monday off from work so I can head out there the
night
before. It'll be a long night, but worth it in my opinion. One thing
I've
been wondering though - how big is this thing going to be? I envision it
either being a dozen people standing around at dawn, or the the biggest
event Mojave airport has ever seen. Any idea where it's going to fall
between those two extremes?


Well, every motel room in Mojave has been booked for that date since
the day after the first press release. But then, there are only five
motels.

In article ,
Gene Seibel wrote:
Anyone else planning to go to Mojave to see Burt Rutan's ship fly?

I sooo wanted to go, but before it was announced I picked the 21st to
start a new job... Of all the days...!

--
Ben Jackson

http://www.ben.com/

From the yahoo group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mojaveairport/

-Brenor

From: "Alan Radecki" akradecki@y...
Date: Tue Jun 15, 2004 11:47 am
Subject: SpaceShipOne Daily update - 6/15



Hi all,

Starting today, I plan on sending out a daily update on the
activities surrounding the SpaceShipOne launch.

-The flight is scheduled to commence at 0630 Monday 6/21, however
that is dependent on weather. Should there be a weather delay, such
as winds, the folks at Scaled plan on waiting and launching as soon
as the weather permits, even if it stretches to the next day.
-The public will enter the airport from the main Airport Blvd
entrance off of Hwy 58. The airport will open at 3am, but it is
pretty much assumed around here that there will be so many people
showing up that the roads will be clogged. RVs will be permitted in
the day before, with reservations (661/824-2433). I know that there's
already 89 coming, some of whom are NASA folks who are bringing a
band and everything. Regular vehicles will be charged $10 entrance
fee (to help mitigate the huge cost of security that the airport has
to bear), and I can't remember the RV cost...check mojaveairport.com
for details. Don't try to avoid the traffic by coming in the back
entrances...these are for VIPs with passes and tenants with ID badges.
-There will be a TFR, and only aircraft with PPR numbers will be
permitted into the airspace, starting on Saturday, I believe. Again,
see mojaveairport.com for details.
-If you don't make it onto the airport, you'll still see the
firing...it'll be visible for miles.
-There will be food and consessions selling souveniers, with all
profits going to local charities.
-There will be a press conference 2 hours after the flight, at which
time the FAA will award the first ever Commercial Pilot's License
with Astronaut rating.

If you have any questions, post them to the group and I'll answer
them in the next day's message.

I'll be here starting Sunday afternoon, sleeping in the Mercy
quarters.

Alan

Today's update on SpaceShip One from Alan Radecki on the yahoo group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mojaveairport/
-Brenor

Hi all,

The folks at MHV are continuing to get the various
sites ready for the influx of people, who seem to
already be arriving. Several RVs drove slowly down the
flightline.

The White Knight, which was doing a number of touch
and goes day before yesterday, was out doing
maintenance runs today.

Yesterday's update generated a couple of questions:
1-Can a person sleep in their car on the airport
overnight Sunday night? No. The general parking area
won't open till 3am. Only self-contained RVs will be
allowed on the airport overnight. There is a large
open lot across Hwy 58 from where big-rig trucks
usually overnight, and that might be an option. I do
understand, however, that a number of people plan on
lining up on the shoulder of 58 around midnight. Don't
know if they'll get chased away or not. There's a CHP
(California Highway Patrol, for you out-of-staters)
station adjacent to the airport, so they may be out in
force.
2-Is there any European live broadcasts planned? I've
no clue. AFAIK, there are a bunch of satellite trucks
scheduled to start arriving on Saturday, no idea who
they might be from. I have not heard of anyone
planning a live webcast, but you might want to check
at space.com to see if they're doing anything...I know
some of their folks will be here.

One caution to those planning on being here but aren't
used to life in the desert: BRING LOTS OF WATER! Even
at 7am, it's getting quite warm now, and you will get
dehydrated much faster than you'll realize. There will
be vendors selling water, but count on it being
pricey. Our rule of thumb out he if you're not
peeing every couple of hours, you're not drinking
enough.

Other news:
-I haven't received confirmation yet, but my
understanding was that the FAA was supposed to issue
the airport the first ever civilian spaceport license
today. There's going to be about a 2 hour gap between
the flight and the offical press conference, and they
are tentatively planning to do a formal presentation
of the license during that time, and it should be
within view of the public viewing area.
-The public viewing area is set up southeast of the
new Taxiway Bravo (map is available at
mojaveairport.com ), at the approach end of Rwy 30, so
everyone will get an excellent view of the landing.
-When Burt came in for lunch at the Voyager Cafe
yesterday, he was all grins...looks like he's really
having a lot of fun with this.

Five days and counting!

Feel free to send questions....

Alan

Today's update on SpaceShip One from Alan Radecki on the yahoo group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mojaveairport/
-Brenor

Hi all,

Not sure what the hitch is, but the designation of MHV as the first
commercial inland spaceport didn't happen by the FAA as expected
yesterday...stay tuned.

Regarding broadcasts and webcasts of the launch...CNN is reportedly
going to do a live broadcast, don't know if that'll reach Europe.
Local radio station KLOA FM 104.9 has the exclusive radio rights to
direct feed, and it now sounds as if they'll be live webcasting the
audio at http://www.kloafm.com/

There is now a map of the public parking area up on the the airport
site at http://www.mojaveairport.com/special-ops.htm

If you haven't seen it yet, Scaled has a FAQ on their site at
http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/june21faq.htm

There really is no other news to report this morning...it's a
gorgeous, if somewhat warm day...

Alan