Space Shot Video »
I'm currently watching a Real stream of video that covers the SpaceShipOne launch in the quest for the Ansari X Prize. Mostly it is a lot of fluff, but there is some pretty interesting background on flight in general and Burt Rutan specifically. Think of the history channel.
It just now cut to the "live" coverage from what appears to be the runway, presumably to cover the launch itself, which should be happening in about forty-five minutes. In any case, I wanted to let folks know that there is a webcast, and the quality is pretty decent. I was unable to find the link for the webcast at space.com, I couldn't get to xprize.org, but I did find a link at NASA that offers Real and Windows Media. You may want to check it out if you're interested in this sort of thing.
Update: White Knight is rolling out for takeoff, now is in the air. Release of SpaceShipOne should take place in about an hour.
Update: SpaceShipOne has released, burn is over - strange roll happening. 330,000 feet in the air - they made it to the barrier. If they can land, the first attempt is in the bag. High of 338,000 feet. On the way back down.
Update: The ship is "feathering" - guess we know where that term came from - on its way back down. Looks like it is diving, then flattening out, then diving, then flattening out. Very cool that something that heavy can act like a feather or a piece of paper. Dunno if it's actually happening that way, but that's what it looks like. Wings are back down, the ship is gliding. Just a matter of time now. Wheels are down. Here it comes.
Update: Back home! SpaceShipOne and the sky looked better in the CNN feed. I even saw White Knight fly overhead. Neat, though the extras on the NASA feed make it better overall. Later, the CNN feed even completely lost SpaceShipOne on more than one occasion. It was really an odd flight down - many times looked like SpaceShipOne went vertical, and at least once rolled over completely (horizontally, not vertically). Apparently it's not an official attempt just yet, but it sure looked like this is a successful first step. Congratulations to Burt Rutan and Scaled Composites regardless.
