4 October 2004 14:49 GMT. Landing Date: 2004-10-04 15:12:00. Flight Time: 0.0167 days. Flight Up: SpaceShipOne Flight 17P. Flight Back: SpaceShipOne Flight 17P. Crew: Binnie. Program: X-Prize. Of note: Suborbital altitude record for a manned spaceplane Sixth powered flight of Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne and winner of the $10 million X-Prize by becoming the second flight over 100 km within a week. Objectives of the flight were to win the Ansari X-Prize and break the rocketplane altitude record set by the X-15 in 1963. The Tier One (White Knight/SpaceShipOne) composite aircraft took off at 06:49 PST. Drop of the rockeplane was made exactly one hour later at 14.4 km altitude. Pilot Brian Binnie fired the hybrid rocket motor, which burned for 83 seconds. The engine cut off with SpaceShipOne at Mach 3.09 (3524 kph) at 65 km altitude. From there it coasted to 112 km altitude. Binnie experienced weightlessness for 3.5 minutes before re-entry began. The spacecraft reached Mach 3.25 G's during re-entry and a peak deceleration of 5.4 G's at 32 km altitude. Binnie reconfigured the vehicle to a glider at 15.5 km and then made an 18 minute glide to a landing at Mojave airport. SpaceShipOne thereby won the $10 million X-Prize. No anomalies were noted on the flight and SpaceShipOne returned with no maintenance squawks. SpaceShipOne Flight 17P Chronology - 2004 Oct 4 - SpaceShipOne Flight 17P - X-Prize Flight 2 Crew: Binnie. Spacecraft: SpaceShipOne. Launch Site: Mojave. Launch Vehicle: Tier One. Duration: 0.0167 days. Apogee: 112 km (69 mi).
Objectives of the flight were to win the Ansari X-Prize and break the rocketplane altitude record set by the X-15 in 1963. The Tier One (White Knight/SpaceShipOne) composite aircraft took off at 06:49 PST. Drop of the rockeplane was made exactly one hour later at 14.4 km altitude. Pilot Brian Binnie fired the hybrid rocket motor, which burned for 83 seconds. The engine cut off with SpaceShipOne at Mach 3.09 (3524 kph) at 65 km altitude. From there it coasted to 112 km altitude. Binnie experienced weightlessness for 3.5 minutes before re-entry began. The spacecraft reached Mach 3.25 during re-entry and a peak deceleration of 5.4 G's at 32 km altitude. Binnie reconfigured the vehicle to a glider at 15.5 km and then made an 18 minute glide to a landing at Mojave airport. SpaceShipOne thereby won the $10 million X-Prize. No anomalies were noted on the flight and SpaceShipOne returned with no maintenance squawks.
|