SpaceShipOne, model airplane

Jeff Foust has some excellent commentary on yesterday's second anniversary of SpaceShipOne's first commercial spaceflight.

Meanwhile, I've been learning about the world's first homebuilt spaceship's roots in model airplanes. Burt Rutan, the ship's designer, has spoken of finding his best workers for SpaceShipTwo from among the ranks of model airplane builders rather from the traditional aerospace industry, and no wonder.

SpaceShipOne can trace a direct line of ancestry from the model airplanes Rutan built as a grade-schooler in the 1950s. In fact the very name of Rutan's company, Scaled Composites, comes from the concept of building scale models of bigger airplanes out of composites made of fiberglass and other high-strength cloth and glue--materials dedicated amateurs used to build Rutan's first airplane designs in their garages.

No, as Jeff sadly points out in his commentary, you still can't fly an X Prize class ship into space. But you can fly its tiny cousins, and a hell of a lot more cheaply.

Check out Dan Kreigh's WildRC.com for some eye-popping videos of these little machines whirling around in the Scaled hangar in Mojave California, and then if you're inspired, pick one up for just a couple hundred bucks.

Kreigh is a structural analyst at Scaled. Along with other work on SpaceShipOne, he designed and applied the spray-of-stars pattern on the spaceship's nose. And he builds and sells radio controlled model airplanes of the same carbon fiber construction as the spaceship itself. Kreigh reports, however, that the one-of-a-kind model of SpaceShipOne pictured above is not for sale.

Bigelow on COTS

Receiving money from NASA's new Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program will disqualify a company from winning Robert Bigelow's America's Space Prize, Bigelow confirmed for me yesterday.

Under COTS, NASA has allocated $500 million to be spent over five years to help entrepreneurial space companies develop spaceships that can send crew and/or cargo to the International Space Station. The space agency is expected to select companies to receive the first installment of this money by summer's end.

Robert Bigelow also has a vested interest in helping private enterprise reach orbit; he expects to launch the first commercial space station, now under development in North Las Vegas, by 2012.

But he doesn't have a way to get people and supplies there, which is why he launched his $50 million America's Space Prize in 2004 for the first private spaceship capable of docking with an orbital outpost.

America's Space Prize is not compatible with COTS, however. "One of the conditions of that was that federal money would not be allowed into that program," Bigelow told me of his prize. And that includes COTS money. "I still think that rule helps to level the playing field."

Bigelow to launch space fans to orbit, this year

"Your picture here!" That's the word from Robert Bigelow, who's just filled me in on the launch of his program to involve the public in his commercial space station program.

On June 16, he'll use a Russian Dnepr rocket to launch a 1/3-scale Genesis model of his planned commercial orbital space station. That much has been public for a while. What I didn't learn until just now is what will be on that module.

Freefloating inside will be 1,000 photocards and small personal objects contributed by Bigelow employees. If all goes well, those items will be continuously blown throughout the pressurized module in a kind of space collage. Six onboard cameras will stream video to Bigelow's new website, which will launch tomorrow or Friday. Seven external cameras will provide views of the Earth from space and the outside of the module.

If that doesn't get even the most disinterested member of the public at least intrigued about the possibilities of space travel, I don't know what will.

But it gets better. Subject to a successful launch of the first module, Bigelow will launch a second Genesis module in September, and that one will contain photos and other small items contributed by anyone who cares to pony up $295.

Think of it. For the next five years, while Genesis hurtles through its 550-kilometer-high orbit, you could fire up your Web browser, click the appropriate link, and watch the ultimate psychedelic space show--hundreds of photos, golf balls, belt buckles, rings, medals, you name it, twirling and spinning in zero gravity, and every once in a while, your smiling mug, or your daughter's, or your husband's, will peek out of the milieu for all the world to see. Hell, make it your screensaver. Or project it on a wall for a party. All for the price of an iPod, which if you bought now would just be an expensive paperweight in five years anyhow.

Phase one of the new website, outlining this program, launches by week's end. Keep an eye on it for details on how to make reservations. Also look for photos of Bigelow's just-completed mission control center in Las Vegas.

"We've been busy," said Bigelow with his characteristic flair for dramatic understatement when I expressed my astonishment at his recent activity. And how.

Bigelow wants me to give him feedback on his new Web site after it launches. Let me know what you think of it, either here or via the email address on my website, and I'll pass it on.

Diamandis wins $500,000 Heinlein Prize

Just got a press release from the X PRIZE Foundation's Ian Murphy about the inaugural Heinlein Prize--$500,000 to individuals helping to commercialize space. X PRIZE founder Peter Diamandis will get the award at a dinner in Houston on July 7.

The Robert A. and Virginia Heinlein Prize Trust administers the award, which honors the memory of science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein. Heinlein's work inspired legions of people to go to work in the field of space travel, including yours truly.

In the press release, Diamandis cites Heinlein's story "The Man Who Sold the Moon" as one of his prime influences. "In fact," he says, "I flew it as personal cargo aboard SpaceShipOne during the winning Ansari X PRIZE flight on October 4th, 2004."

Heinlein's young adult novel Rocket Ship Galileo was the first novel I ever read (because it had pictures), and it had a tremendous impact on me. I was then six years old, and from then on I wanted to write about space travel. I've sometimes wondered what would have happened if that first novel had been a romance....

Heinlein's work is characterized by ordinary people cobbling together ordinary resources to do extra ordinary things--like go to the moon. In Rocket Ship Galileo, three high school students and a nuclear physicist build a moon ship just because they can. It must have seemed possible in 1947, when that book came out. Then in the 1960s, NASA convinced everyone that only massive government programs could send people into space, and stories about people building spaceships in their back yards went by the wayside.

Now, finally, in the 21st century, science fact has caught up with the science fiction of the 1940s and 1950s. Private citizens are now building space ships for real, in large part because the winning of the Ansari X PRIZE proved it was possible. I can think of no person more deserving of an award called the Heinlein Prize than Diamandis.

NASA to pick COTS winner(s) August 8

NASA's schedule calls for awarding Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) funding for servicing the International Space Station with private spaceships on August 8.

Six commercial space companies have made it to the final round for consideration by NASA, but as Gwynne Shotwell, business development manager for Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), one of the finalists, cautioned me today, "It's not a win yet until we get an award. It's not clear whether they're going to pick all six."

I've heard speculation from other reps at companies among the six finalists that anywhere from one to three companies will get funding from NASA to aid development of their spaceships-in-progress, but no word yet from NASA on the actual number.

NASA's next step is to begin negotiations with the finalists. SpaceX has its "kick-off telecon" tomorrow.

NASA makes first round of cuts for COTS

No one I've spoken with is going on record yet, but I'm hearing from reliable sources that NASA made the first round of cuts for its Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) contracts with phone calls this morning.

Out of an estimated 24 companies that applied for NASA's new program to supply the International Space Station with crew and supplies, an unofficial six have made the first round of cuts, my sources tell me. Companies reported to have made this cut are:

Andrews Space
Rocketplane Kistler
SpaceDev
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX)
SpaceHab
Transformational Space Corporation (t/Space)

No money will be awarded until NASA makes the final round of cuts, possibly in June or July, when one to three of these companies will get money out of a $500 million pot NASA has allocated to servicing Space Station with commercial spaceships.

My own feeling is that COTS is NASA's best hope for maintaining its manned presence in space. NASA has relied on the Russian Soyuz spaceships for space access since space shuttle Columbia broke up on reentry in February 2003.

NASA has flown only one shuttle flight since then, its much heralded "return to flight" mission last July. Even after $1 billion in fixes, that flight was marred by the same flying external tank foam problem that doomed Columbia, and the shuttles were again indefinitely grounded.

Meanwhile, a cadre of small, nimble companies has been making steady progress toward comparatively inexpensive commercial access to space.

Stay tuned.

--UPDATE at 5:35 ET--
The sixth and final company on my list, SpaceDev, has fallen into place.

--UPDATE at 7:21--
Just heard from Chuck Lauer, new business development manager at Rocketplane. He confirms that Rocketplane Kistler is a finalist for COTS. He says he's very encouraged by the fact that Big Aerospace stayed off the list; it shows that "NASA has really seen the value of New Space." Referring to the big, multibillion dollar contracts to be awarded to major aerospace firms for building NASA's new manned moon ships, he says that NASA should go further, and "take $500 million out of the Lockheed-Boeing welfare fund" to fund more entrepreneurial space efforts.

SpaceShot gaining momentum

Sam Dinkin, CEO of SpaceShot, the just-launched online game giving away rides to suborbital space as prizes, told me at the ISDC yesterday that his best customer has plunked down $500 in SpaceShot's first month of operation. Space-Shot.com got 15,000 page views on launch day last month, representing 5,000 unique visits, said Dinkin.

Not bad for a venture awarding rides on a vehicle that has yet to fly, and a strong indicator of the tremendous potential demand for suborbital spaceflights among those not wealthy enough to buy $200,000 tickets outright. Dinkin's identified a way to tap that market, essentially allowing those of ordinary means to pool their resources to send selected hopefuls among them into space.

The game costs $3.50 per play, which involves predicting the next day's weather in Central Park. Predict better than others playing, and you advance through rounds of play, bringing you ever closer to a ride on the suborbital Rocketplane XP under development by Rocketplane Kistler. Dinkin has a deal with the company potentially worth hundreds of flights, including a guaranteed block of flights in the vehicle's first six months of service.

Dinkin won't tell me how much he paid Rocketplane to reserve those seats, but he's hedging his bets; the money's in escrow, and he can pull it and put it with another provider if Rocketplane doesn't fly. Dinkin's covering his customers too, as explained in the official rules:

"In the event that a given winner cannot participate in such a flight, through medical or other causes, or technical problems with the spacecraft, winners agree to accept the alternative prize of $150,000 instead. SpaceShot may revise this figure downward in $5,000 increments for new wins when a player receives the cash alternative prize."

Nice.

Virgin Galactic's got a play-for-spaceflight plan too, but it hasn't launched yet. In fact it seems somewhat...neglected, with its website promising that the games will begin "in Autumn 2005."

Virgin and its spaceship contractor Scaled Composites have first-mover advantage in this space (literally), having launched the first commercial spaceship in 2004, but Rocketplane, along with SpaceShot, seem poised to catch up fast. And that competition can only be good for potential customers of both ventures.