Re: X-Prize

Realizing this is a bit off topic, I thought some might like to hear the

update.

Burt Rutan's Space Ship one had 'mishap' on the last flight, (Sep 27th)
in 
which it entered an "Un-commanded" pitch up during a stall test. Full
stick, AND 
full trim tab failed to correct the problem and the pilot ended up
rolling 
with the ships rudders and aiming the nose at the ground to gain enough
speed to 
abort and land.
During the landing, a new set of "space worthy" landing gear doors were
used. 
Though it was expected the new doors would cause drag, they caused so
MUCH 
drag that the ship landed almost 1000 feet short of the pilots intended
touch 
down point.
Scaled has not announced yet if the fixes for these problems are going
to be 
'big' or 'small' but the general consesus is that any plans for doing
the 
100km flight by the Wrights aniversery in December are out the window.
More can be had by reading the RLV news entry for October 7, and
following 
the links to the Scaled Composits page.
>http://www.hobbyspace.com/Links/RLVNews.html<

Randy