illuminating science

SpaceShipOne has touched down, after a successful flight (Google news). It took about an hour for the plane to carry the ship to its starting height, and then only minutes for it to reach space. There was some odd rolling on the way up, and I think they terminated the burn early, but SpaceShgipOne made it to space and beyond. For the first time, there was a camera mounted inside the ship, and the views of Earth were amazing.

We’re still waiting for confirmation form the judges that this was a successful attempt, but assuming so, the two week count for their second attempt and the $10 million prize money has started. Hopefully the odd behaviour on the way up won’t delay the proposed relaunch next week. It was fantastic to watch this live!

Oh, and a question of scruples for you all: The X-Prize requires a ship with one pilot and two passengers, but the passengers on this flight were replaced by ballast (as allowed by the rules.) If you’d been offered one of those passenger seats for today’s flight, would you have taken it? I have to say that I would have, despite the obvious risks with what the commentators called “test flight in its purest form.” In a room of three physicists, we had two votes for yes and one for no - what would you do?