Private manned rocket plane makes history

导读：
一架有人驾驶的美国火箭太空船21日清晨飞到了距离地表60英里左右(大约100公里)的高空，然后成功在没有动力的情况下安全滑翔返回地面，从而成功实现了首次私人赞助的太空探险活动。据悉，本次航行活动持续了90多分钟。这架火箭飞行器首先由名为“白色骑士”的喷气式飞机运送到高空，然后再通过点燃其自身的火箭发动机而继续向外层空间挺进。驾驶火箭飞机的62岁飞行员表示，亲眼见到地球表面曲线的感觉“妙不可言”。本次试验活动由微软公司创办人之一的艾伦出资2000万美元进行赞助。这架火箭飞机上设有三个座位，加上可以重复使用，为今后顺利推出 “普通人太空游”开了个好头。

从电视直播画面上看，悬挂在“白骑士”下面的“太空船一号”在当地时间周一清晨升空。母船花了一个多小时将“太空船一号”载至15,450米高空，然后与其成功分离。紧接着，飞行员发动火箭引擎，并以时速4,025公里垂直攀升至约50公里高空，在火箭引擎关闭后，太空船将再向上“冲”到约距离地面103公里的太空。自重不到三吨的太空船在如此高度停留了数分钟，期间驾驶员体验失重感觉，并亲眼目睹漆黑一片的太空和地球大气层，整个过程一直持续至太空船返回约60公里的高空后才宣告结束。随后，太空船开始降落，这时它的双尾梁和机翼后半部均向上旋转，直至跟船身成直角，以帮助船体减速。

当“太空船一号”重新进入大气层时，尾梁将旋转回原来位置，飞行员驾驶着没有任何动力的太空船滑翔几十分钟后，平安返回莫哈韦机场，整个测试活动成功结束。据悉，“太空船一号”由美国加州的航空航天公司Scaled Composites建造，整个研究计划秘密进行了多年。今年5月，“太空船一号”曾经成功飞到65公里高空，创下非政府资助航天计划最高飞行高度纪录。此前，“太空船一号”的发明人曾因设计了可“不加油不着陆”环绕地球飞行的“旅行者”号轻型飞机而名声大噪。驾驶“太空船一号”的飞行员老当益壮，虽已经年逾六旬，但仍因拥有数千小时飞行经验，加上曾试验过上前种固定翼和直升飞机实地经验相当丰富而勇闯太空。

June 21, 2004


A 63-year-old test pilot(试飞员) rode a stubby white rocket plane into history Monday, becoming the first person to fly a privately operated vehicle to suborbital space(亚轨道空间) -- but the craft just barely made its altitude goal.

Preliminary data showed that Michael Melvill flew SpaceShipOne, a bulbous-nosed vehicle reminiscent of something out of Buck Rogers(美国出品的科幻电影), to an altitude of 328,491 feet, or just beyond the minimum target of 100 kilometers (62.14 miles) that is recognized by international authorities as the beginning of space.

The brief but path-breaking(开创性的) flight was hailed by space enthusiasts as the dawn of what could eventually become fairly routine access to suborbital space -- by those willing to pay the price.

The tiny craft experienced some potentially disastrous control problems that caused anxious moments for Melvill.

"I was a little afraid on the way down," he told a post-landing press briefing. Burt Rutan, the designer of the space plane, said the mission was less than perfect but still a success. He said the team had hoped for an altitude of 360,000 feet, or 68.18 miles.

Rutan said the control problem, in which one of the horizontal tail wings was out of balance with the other, required Melvill to use a backup system to put them into a level configuration for a proper landing. He said the problem, which is still being investigated, was the most serious safety issue the craft has experienced since it began a series of flights at lower altitudes.

The issue must be understood, Rutan said, before the team attempts to go for the $10 million Ansari X Prize, which is being offered to the first craft that flies to 100 kilometers twice in two weeks with a pilot and the weight equivalent of two passengers.

The problems did not dampen the enthusiasm of Rutan and Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft Corp., who is paying for the project to the tune of more than $20 million so far. "It's an incredibly exciting day for private space initiatives," Allen said.

SpaceShipOne was ferried aloft from Mojave Airport into the bright desert sky by its insect-like mother ship called the White Knight. After an hour climbing in circles to about 46,000 feet above the airport, SpaceShipOne was released and fired its hybrid-fuel rocket. Melvill said the craft rolled first left, then right as he acted to stabilize it as it climbed nearly straight up at a maximum speed of almost three times the speed of sound.

Melvill, a South African who is a U.S. citizen, said he experienced just over three minutes of weightlessness. He released some candy-coated chocolates in the cockpit(飞机座舱) at the apogee(远地点), and they "just spun around like little sparkling things," he said.

Melvill said he was surprised by the high-frequency roar of air rushing past his cockpit during the supersonic re-entry through the atmosphere. "That's very, very intimidating," he said. He also was startled by a loud bang, apparently caused by the partial buckling of an aerodynamic cover that surrounds the rocket nozzle.

But Melvill was ebullient upon gliding his craft back to a landing in front of thousands of onlookers. He thrust his arms into the air. Rutan and Allen hugged him and Buzz Aldrin, the second astronaut to walk on the moon, shook his hand.

Patricia Grace Smith, the Federal Aviation Administration's associate administrator for commercial space transportation, gave Melvill the agency's first commercial astronaut wings and presented a commemorative plaque to Rutan. "Space travel and space tourism, low cost access to space, are a lot closer than they were just Monday," said Smith, whose office licenses suborbital space flights.

"Get your checkbooks ready. Space tourism is coming," said Peter Diamandis, co-founder of the Ansari X Prize competition.

Whether the flight will usher in a new era remains to be seen, specialists say. The cost of such brief flights to the edge of space is expected to be as much as $100,000 a ticket initially and could be years away, particularly if regulatory uncertainties remain about the licensing of flights with fare-paying passengers.

But Rutan, an innovative aerospace engineer who wants to bring the excitement of space flight to the masses, is undeterred. "The new private space entrepreneurs have a vision," he said. "I'm one of them. We do want our children to go to the planets. We are willing to seek breakthroughs by taking risks. And if the business-as-usual space developers continue their decades-long pace, they will be gazing from the slow lanes as we speed into the new space age."

He said suborbital flights are just a first step. "We do not plan to stay in low earth orbit for decades," Rutan said before Monday's flight. "Hold on -- the next 25 years will be a wild ride, that's my prediction."

A suborbital flight is much less challenging than sending a space shuttle(航天飞机) into orbit at 24 times the speed of sound. NASA has had nothing to do with the SpaceShipOne project, but space agency administrator Sean O'Keefe, in a statement, applauded "their remarkable achievement." He said the team was "doing much to open the door to a new marketplace offering the experience of weightlessness and suborbital space flight to the public."

Rutan predicted suborbital flights costing about $10,000 could be available within 10 to 15 years. He said he has been struck by the public's enthusiasm.

"Clearly, there is an enormous pent-up hunger to fly in space and not just dream about it," Rutan said. His point resonated among some of the spectators who drove to the Mojave Airport, a small commercial facility that has just won a federal license as a spaceport.

"Where do I sign up," asked Mike Sawicki, 56, an aviation buff and pilot from Perris, Calif.

Luther Johnson, 43, an electronics technician from Joshua Tree, Calif., spoke knowingly of the lightweight composite materials used and the simplicity of the design. "It's destined to change the way we think about going to space," he said.

There was much talk of the Wright Brothers and Charles Lindbergh among many spectators, some of whom said they came to the airstrip with a clear sense of the moment. "Sometimes the country needs a boost like this," said Deborah Talbot, 54, of Fernley, Nev. "I want to see the space program get that kind of boost. I don't want to see it die."