Spaceship pilot has high hopes

By Andrew Garber
Seattle Times staff reporter

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Michael Melvill, now a U.S. citizen living in Southern California, was announced as the pilot yesterday in a scene reminiscent of NASA's early space program, with a room full of cameras flashing and reporters yelling for a quote.

He didn't have time to ponder his comments, getting only a few seconds in front of the microphone. "I'm looking forward to this very much," said Melvill.

If everything goes right, he'll be an astronaut before lunch and the first person to pilot a private, manned spaceship out of the Earth's atmosphere. Melvill holds records for altitude and speed in different aircraft and has logged more than 6,400 hours of flight time in 111 fixed-wing aircraft and seven helicopters. He also flew SpaceShipOne on May 13, reaching an altitude of about 40 miles.

"I enjoyed the last flight," Melvill said. "I'm hoping this will be an exact repetition, just a little taller, a little higher, a little faster."

More than 200 media outlets from around the world packed a conference room at the Mojave Airport for a chance to see Melvill and talk to the builders of SpaceShipOne.

Microsoft co-founder and billionaire Paul Allen, who financed the effort, and Burt Rutan, who oversaw the construction, spent an hour fielding questions ranging from the future of space tourism to mechanics of space flight.

Allen seemed somewhat intimidated by the crowd at first but warmed up when describing what SpaceShipOne is capable of doing. "It's going straight up at Mach 3.2," he said. "When you're behind something like that, it's incredibly exciting."

Depending on wind conditions, a carrier jet named White Knight is expected to take off at 6:30 a.m. today with SpaceShipOne strapped to its belly. Once it reaches an altitude of 50,000 feet, the three-seat spaceship, with only Melvill onboard, will be released.

The rocket motor is expected to fire for about 80 seconds, pushing the craft to Mach 3 in a vertical climb. The spaceship is supposed to reach an altitude of 62 miles before falling back to Earth. Melvill should be weightless for about three minutes. The craft does not go fast enough to put it into orbit.

The craft's twin tails fold up for a shuttlecock effect as it re-enters the atmosphere. The pilot later reconfigures the ship back to a normal glider and lands it like an airplane on the same runway from which it took off.
 
Rutan compared what they were doing with the Wright brothers, who invented the airplane. He predicted suborbital space tourism will become a reality within a few years.

"Clearly there is an enormous, pent-up hunger to fly in space, and not just dream about it," he said.

Plenty of people were eager to see today's launch. A long line of RVs was waiting yesterday to pay for a stay in a parking lot.

Doug Roberts, 58, of Burien, was one of the first to arrive in his camper early yesterday morning.

"I read 'Rocket Ship Galileo' when I was 10 years old, so I've been waiting for this for years," he said.

The book by Robert Heinlein told of some high-school graduates who built a rocket ship in the desert. It's the book that got Allen hooked on science fiction.

If today's flight is successful, SpaceShipOne is later expected to contend for the $10 million Ansari X Prize, a competition to launch three people into suborbital space, bring them back safely and do it again within two weeks using the same vehicle. Several private groups are in contention for the prize.

Melvill was confident about that contest. "We're going to win the X-Prize," he said. "You can bank your money on it."

Andrew Garber: 360-943-9882 or agarber@seattletimes.com