SpaceShipOne Flight 15P (first civilian space flight)

SpaceShipOne
Flight 15P - June 21 2004
(first space flight)
max speed: Mach 2.9
altitude: 100.1 km
duration: 24 min 05 s
pilot: Mike Melvill

B-Roll footage courtesy
Vulcan Productions and Discovery Channel
(no sound)

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• SpaceShipOne
• ss1
• n328kf
• mike melvill
• burt rutan
• scaled composites

[seroyer2]

This was history in the making, and barely anyone knew or talked about it. it sad to see that celebrities where more impontan than the first private space craft lunching into space. when we landed on the moon the hole world celebrated. and this is the chance for the first civilians to go to space, and not many know about it. I just think it is sad to see what are focus is on these days.

[atlasdaddy]

The first flight of SpaceShip One into sub-space was by a High School drop out! Got to love that shit!!!  Piss on NASA!

[nmoeller104]

@marvchomer Because SpaceShipOne orbited Earth for two weeks with seven crewmembers and carried 10 tons of cargo to and from orbit, right? Oh wait...that was NASA. My bad :)

[johnsvideochannel]

Dangerous,he wasn't wearing a pressure suit ! What if the fueselage ruptured ??

Cool video !

[marvchomer]

Awesome! Blows NASA out of the water.

[frank2398]

It takes people like Burt and Mike to make me proud to be American again. Thank you Scaled Composites.

[mrHckyfan]

@crazybastard82

absolutely agreed, this is our future, whether some skeptics like it or not. This world is changing every day and technology has improved rapidly, just look at the past century. As soon as we start thinking beyond Lambo Gallardos and who's the best on American Idol, we'd be a better society. Not to mention public school. Problem is, most of the people on the planet are either stupid, or not informed, or don't care about the future, just fuck bitches get money >:]

[kdraper2007]

@qup5 it would have been more cost effective to design 2 smaller varients of the same spacecraft that were optimised for different roles then to built an all-in-one design that is the shuttle. a large ca, and a smallerrgo lifter with optional manned/automated flight & a smaller, lighter people lifter for experiments & crew transfers to space stations. the shuttles biggest flaw is that it is too complex, there is so much that can fail, so much that has to be replaced before the next flight.

[kdraper2007]

@qup5 Burt Rutan, designer of spaceship one & until recently owner of Scaled composites started his aerospace career working on the X-15 project. 2. for most of the flight ejection would be fatal, plus an ejection seat is a heavy piece of equipment for such a light air/spacecraft, 3. sure you could get a more efficient engine, but the one they are using is inexpensive, reliable, & easily refurbished. allaspects of this design were well thought out.

[KingWilliamMB]

@qup5 about 60 times.. is nonsense... better get youre facts right .. ofcourse its different but 60 times .. is like saying, a apple , is a million times bigger than a rice grain ... its simply exaggerated...

[nrdesign1991]

Damn, 2004? How could I miss that?!

[qup5]

@jacksawild Also orbital speed takes about 60 times as much energy as suborbital speed due to the exponential nature of the rocket equation. You do understand the difference between orbital and suborbital right?

SpaceShipOne is more comparable to the X-15 than it is to the Space Shuttle for this very reason.