Paul Allen and Burt Rutan hope to see their history-making spacecraft claim the $10 million Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight on the anniversary of the Soviet Union's launching of Sputnik nearly half a century ago.
SpaceShipOne, the rocket-plane built by Rutan and funded by Allen, plans to make its first attempt on Sept. 29 and complete a required second trip into space in less than half the two-week minimum.
Rutan said they want to make their second attempt on Oct. 4 -- the same date that, in 1957, marked the beginning of the first space race.
Microsoft co-founder Allen has spent more than $20 million on SpaceShipOne because he wants to make spaceflight a common, commercial enterprise.
"We're at the point where human spaceflight is about to transition from something we watch to something we can all participate in," said Peter Diamandis, chairman and founder of the St. Louis-based X Prize organization dedicated to promoting space tourism.
"We're looking forward to competing for the X Prize," Rutan said. The famed aerospace pioneer, along with Canadian competitor Brian Feeney, Diamandis and others announced SpaceShipOne's estimated dates of departure at a news conference yesterday in Santa Monica, Calif.
On June 21, SpaceShipOne made history when pilot Mike Melvill flew it to the agreed point in the sky where space begins -- 62.5 miles up -- and became the first person to earn astronaut wings in a private spacecraft.
Feeney, team leader for Canada's da Vinci Project, did not provide dates when his 600-person volunteer organization plans to have its balloon-lofted rocket ready for a run at the X Prize. But he said yesterday his team plans to remain competitive with the Allen-Rutan gang and also launch this fall.
"We're still in the hunt," Feeney said.
So are two young men in Forks, they'll have you know. The rocket scientists of the Olympic Peninsula seldom get much attention as X Prize competitors.
"It's irritating, but we'll just ignore them as well and move ahead," said Philip Storm, co-founder of Space Transport Corp. of Forks. Storm and his partner Eric Meier, both in their mid-20s, are among the 26 teams listed as official contestants for the X Prize.
"We're not funded by a billionaire or with lots of staff, but I still think we have what it takes," Storm said. "Our plan is still to launch soon and beat Burt."
Despite their youth, Storm and Meier do have credibility as bona fide rocket scientists. Both worked for Aerojet in Redmond. The company works on the rocket engines for the space shuttle program and builds most of the engines used for NASA spacecraft.
They moved to Forks to pursue the X Prize because the remote areas provide plenty of room for testing rockets. They plan to soon move to a full-scale test of their rocket, the Rubicon, and if all goes well, move forward with the required manned launch.
"I think you saw on June 21 that Burt's vehicle is underfueled," said Storm, noting the June 21 flight barely made it into space with only one person on board. The X Prize rules require that the spacecraft carry three people (or the weight equivalent) to qualify.
The Rubicon, Storm and Meier said, will succeed because it is simple and proven. The plan is to launch it off the coast, reach the space milestone and then parachute down into the Pacific Ocean off the Washington coast to be retrieved by boat or helicopter. Space Transport Corp. has already raised $220,000 -- about half what they say they need.
"If we just had 15 more people as volunteers, we could do this for sure," Storm said.
Both Feeney and Rutan are "air-launching" their rockets, he said, adding an enormous amount of complexity to their approach.
Storm noted that the Canadian team hasn't completed a test of their rocket yet so he would argue they are more likely competitors to Rutan.
"We're certainly not giving up," Storm said
After the announcement was made in Santa Monica yesterday, Rutan and Feeney spoke with reporters by telephone.
Feeney said the da Vinci team plans to roll out its rocket for public viewing on Aug. 5 and will be "talking about (launch) dates in the near future."
Both he and Rutan said the advantage to an "air launch" of a rocket is that it gives you a greater margin of safety if something goes wrong.
"The most dangerous place to fire a rocket is from ground level," Rutan said. "Even the smallest problems with propulsion or guidance will make for a real, real bad day."
Feeney agreed, saying that they have to assume there will be technical failures on the way to developing a "new design ideology" for space travel. Launching at high elevation, he said, allows time to "abort" if necessary and "safely recover the crew and vehicle."
Feeney noted that SpaceShipOne, even with multiple previous test flights, encountered serious, unforeseen but manageable problems on its historic June 21 flight.
Rutan yesterday said the problem, first attributed to a failure of the craft's trim controls, was mostly due to a higher-than-expected amount of wind shear as SpaceShipOne went from subsonic to supersonic speed.
"This program has been more difficult than we anticipated," he said. Rutan said yesterday there's little they can do to better engineer the craft to withstand high wind shear.
"It's more a matter of technique where the pilot uses the trim or rudder," he said. "We've determined we can essentially lower our risk enormously by just improving our technique."