Private manned rocket soars to 211,400 feet over California desert

Friday, May 14th 2004, 6:07 am

By: News On 6

MOJAVE, Calif. (AP) _ A privately developed manned rocket soared to 211,400 feet over California on Thursday, marking the third and highest powered flight of the reusable launch vehicle, the builders said.

The SpaceShipOne is among contenders for the $10 million X Prize, which will go to the first successful private effort to launch a manned craft to an altitude of 63 miles twice in the span of two weeks. The craft must carry at least one person but be capable of carrying three.

The altitude reported Thursday was about 40 miles.

SpaceShipOne, piloted by Mike Melvill, was carried aloft by a plane and released at an altitude of 46,000 feet. The rocket motor ignited 10 seconds later and boosted the craft to 150,000 feet and Mach 2.5. The vehicle then coasted to an apogee of 211,400 feet.

Results of the latest flight were posted on the Web site of Scaled Composits LLC, the Mojave Airport-based company of aerospace designer Burt Rutan. He is developing the SpaceShipOne rocket and White Knight carrier aircraft with funding from Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft and chief executive officer of Vulcan Inc.

During part of the boost phase, a system called the flight director display was inoperative, but the pilot was able to continue the planned trajectory, Scaled said. The onboard avionics system was re-booted and the vehicle made a smooth landing at Mojave, the company said.

The flights _ up and down without going into orbit _ will attempt to privately match such government-funded suborbital flights as those performed by the Redstone-Mercury program and the B-52-dropped X-15s in the 1960s.