And The Crowd Goes Wild

By ANN Contributing Correspondent Wes Oleszewski

SpaceShipOne is towed to the ramp and the crowd goes wild... well as wild as an aviation bunch can get.

When White Knight departed with SpaceShipOne slung beneath its belly early Monday morning, there was an air of anticipation that hung over the Mojave airport. The weather was calm, warm and clear and the crowds were far bigger than four days earlier. This was it, this was the shot at the Grand Prize, this one would be for the coveted X Prize.

In short order the mated aircraft and their chase planes vanish from sight. The crowd is left to wait for the next half hour until the two contrails are seen in the lower southwestern sky. They belong to White Knight and its Starship chase plane. The best view, however, is on the jumbo TV where SpaceShipOne's onboard camera is showing nearly the entire vehicle. The best listening is in the crowd where several spectators have hand-held scanners and are tuned to the air to ground communications. At ten seconds all eyes look up to the contrails and a voice count marks the distance to zero.

A clean drop is seen on the TV followed by ignition of SpaceShipOne's engine. A cheer goes up from the crowd as a single contrail breaks away from the others and in a slight curve begins rapidly accelerate. With its thin trail of white SpaceShipOne straightens its course and drives directly overhead. The long range cameras at Edwards AFB are locked on the vehicle as it climbs, steady as and arrow. Soon the onboard camera shows the background sky change to dark black and the contrail fades to nothing. Flashing back to the onboard view the SpaceShipOne's engine is seen shutting down as the vehicle coasts upward.

Beyond the altitude to claim the X Prize and beyond the altitude record of the famed X-15, SpaceShipOne begins to reconfigure into the feather for reentry. A celebration cheer comes from the crowd as the feather configuration locks in place. Those in the crowd who know the ways of spaceflight know too well that the time to celebrate does not come until the wheels stop on the runway.

Even at apogee, the cameras at Edwards give the crowd a clear picture of SpaceShipOne as it floats back toward earth. The next major event is the reconfiguration of the vehicle from feather to the flight mode. That event takes place and soon the double sonic boom sounds in the distance. SpaceShipOne is about to arrive.

In a scene that, over the last half century has been repeated in this desert sky many times, the formation of SpaceShipOne and its chase planes passes overhead. It is like a throwback to the golden days of flight test, the formation banks toward final approach. Now comes the final obstacle -- dropping the gear. Breaths are held in thousands of chests and more than a few fingers are crossed. It all seems to have gone too smoothly.

As expected, the landing rig of main wheels and nose skid snap out and lock. Moments later, SpaceShipOne greases onto the runway and rolls to a graceful stop on the centerline. Everyone in the crowd now celebrates as the ground crews race to the spaceship. Then, in the finest tradition of flight test, the mother ship White Knight does a fly-by salute. And the crowd goes wild.

FMI: www.scaled.com