SpaceShipOne X-Prize flight

Watch SpaceShipOne attempt to capture the X-prize live online right now. This is its second flight in less than two weeks and is an attempt to win the $10 million X-Prize. Matt and I watched their first space flight in June and enjoyed the thrill of the beginning of what I hope will become the era of daily, crewed spaceflight.

If you can catch this live this morning I'm sure the link above will also get you to video of the launch after the fact. The question is: If you could take out a car-size loan and pay to go to the edge of space, would you? I'm pretty sure you know my answer. What's yours?

Update (2004-10-04 @ 8:02am)
I looks as though the Scaled Composites team's SpaceShipOne achieved the altitude it needed for it's second necessary flight to achieve the X-Prize's goal. Get that baby on the ground now and have yourselves some champaign! Nice work and I look forward to my flight into space soon. ;)

Update (2004-10-04 @ 8:14am)
With a bump the SpaceShipOne spacecraft has touched down and the era of commercial space flight can begin. I'll never forget my experience seeing SS1's first sub-orbital flight in June and hope it will truly usher in a newly attainable frontier for the common human. The thought of Carl Sagan describing the Earth as being the only place wherein everyone you know and love has come from and now lives could become a newly obsolete statement.

Comments (3) | To Top

10/7/2004 @ 4:54pm

hey kevin,

i am sitting here watching discovery channel and it is showing a show entitled 'black sky - the race for space' i thought you may like to know about the show if you were not previously aware of it. as far as i've seen, it has showed the first test-flight that was dropped from another aircraft. VERY interesting! amazing how a group of individuals can generate an aircraft for such a small cost as compared to nasa. hope all is well.

-adam

p.s. what type of digital camera do you use? i remember seeing it on a blog a couple years back that you got a new one, but i'm lazy and don't feel like digging back that far right now (i'm on dial-up... dsl is WAY too expensive in the islands.) and yes... i have been following your site off and on for longer then you knew.

by Adam Gaston

10/7/2004 @ 7:52pm

Hey Adam. Was that about the SpaceShipOne launch down in Mojave in June? If so, I was there: http://www.kevinfreitas.net/journal/20040621/

I bought a Fuji FinePix S602Z a couple summers ago. It works really well, has great zoom (6x), and hasn't collapsed under the weight of all the photos I've taken... yet. I destroyed two previous Toshiba's and needed to try something new.

So, are you voting absentee from down there?

by KevinFreitas

10/8/2004 @ 6:01pm

the show was about ss1's complete journey. from start up to the final launch (i believe... my wife doesn't care too much for the documentary type shows unless if it's about the medical world). i watched most of the special until i was summoned upstairs for my birthday present. and i thought it would just be another day.

as for voting. i am not voting absentee from st croix. two years ago i had decided to become an official virgin island resident so that i could make my vote stretch further. the political scene is pure mayhem down here. very currupt. with only about 115,000 residents between all of the u.s. virgin islands, i figured my vote would count a lot more then if i were to stay a washington resident and vote via absentee.

the only downfall has been that i am no longer able to vote for the presidency. although we are a u.s. territory, we do not have any pull in determining who shall lead our country and the laws that we abide by (at least the laws that our territory is supposed to abide by). that issue is being brought up through our deligate to congress, but where it goes shall be determined. so the answer to your question is nope... sure don't. :)

glad to see things are well up in washington. my entire family is still in the vancouver area, so i get up there about once a year if i'm lucky. take care and i'll keep in touch.

by Adam Gaston