SpaceShipOne wins the XPrize
Pictures by Stratofox team members

X-Prize Flight 1: Release and launch of SpaceShipOne

This is definitely one of the points when things get dramatic. As soon as SpaceShipOne is released from White Knight and far enough away, the pilot lights the rocket motor.

The SpaceShipOne pilot on this flight is Mike Melvill, who also flew the June 21 flight. Mike took the place of Pete Siebold who was scheduled to be the pilot on this flight but became ill. So this is Mike's second space flight.

As soon as Mike lights the rocket motor, the crowd can see the contrail. Everyone was getting very excited watching it. But this is also one of the most dangerous phases of the flight so we were also watching to make sure he was doing OK. His safe return is more important than anything else.

On this flight, SpaceShipOne experienced a high roll rate in the upper atmosphere, though Mike kept the nose pointed in the right direction. Though the people in the VIP area could see this on their screens, those of us in the general public viewing area only noticed some changes in the contrail, mainly that it appeared to get bigger again after it had been getting smaller. Later looking at the photos, there was also some wobble visible in the trail.

Mike maintained control of the rocket flight high enough to get to space, then shut down the motor. He corrected the roll with the reaction control system jets while coasting up into space.

(all pictures on this page are by Ian Kluft)

(2048x3072 1645K) (500x750 7K)	SpaceShipOne fires its rocket!
(2048x3072 1735K) (500x750 7K)	SpaceShipOne climbs...
(2048x3072 1802K) (500x750 7K)	SpaceShipOne climbs...
(2048x3072 1845K) (500x750 7K)	SpaceShipOne climbs...
(2048x3072 1895K) (500x750 7K)	SpaceShipOne climbs...
(2048x3072 1926K) (500x750 7K)	SpaceShipOne climbs...
(2048x3072 1906K) (500x750 7K)	SpaceShipOne climbs...
(2048x3072 1930K) (500x750 7K)	SpaceShipOne climbs...
(2048x3072 1909K) (500x750 7K)	SpaceShipOne climbs...
(2048x3072 1925K) (500x750 7K)	SpaceShipOne climbs...
(2048x3072 1930K) (500x750 7K)	SpaceShipOne climbs...
(2048x3072 1919K) (500x750 7K)	SpaceShipOne climbs... a change has appeared in the trail, getting a little thicker instead of thinner. This may be related to the roll that SpaceShipOne experienced toward the top of the rocket thrust.
(2048x3072 1875K) (500x750 7K)	SpaceShipOne climbs... a little wobble in the trail may be evidence of the roll that SpaceShipOne experienced toward the top of the rocket thrust.
(2048x3072 1766K) (500x750 7K)	SpaceShipOne climbs... more minor wobble is visible in the trail.
(2048x3072 1651K) (500x750 7K)	SpaceShipOne's rocket thrust is turned off manually by astronaut Mike Melvill, now coasting to his second space flight.
(2048x3072 1684K) (500x750 7K)	The upper-level winds quickly shear and distort the trail left by SpaceShipOne

Back up to Stratofox's pictures of SpaceShipOne's XPrize space flights.

Web text copyright 2004 by Stratofox, a Special Interest Group of the South Bay Community Network, Silicon Valley, California
All pictures copyright 2004 by their photographers. Any publication or redistribution of these pictures requires permission. Permission is available upon request and will require crediting the photographers for their pictures.