Flight 16P of SpaceShipOne was a spaceflight in the Tier One program that took place on September 29, 2004. It was the first competitive flight in the Ansari X PRIZE competition to demonstrate a non-governmental reusable crewed spacecraft, and is hence also referred to as the X1 flight. A serious roll excursion occurred during boost, so the flight did not achieve the expected altitude. However, it exceeded 100 km altitude, making it a successful X PRIZE flight.
Scheduling
X PRIZE rules required that the date and place of competitive flights be announced to the X PRIZE Foundation at least 60 days before the flight. Due to problems encountered during flight 15P on June 21, 2004, Scaled Composites did not immediately set a date for their competitive flights, suspecting that another test flight might be required. By July 7, 2004 Burt Rutan reported that the faults had been resolved and the next flights would be competitive. On July 27, 2004, the X PRIZE Foundation announced that Scaled Composites had given notice that they would make their first competitive flight on September 29, 2004. The pilot initially selected for the flight withdrew due to stress about two weeks before the flight, after his wife gave birth and he also fell ill. Mike Melvill, who also piloted SpaceShipOne's sole previous spaceflight, stepped in to fly in his place. The choice of pilot was not publicly announced until about two hours before planned takeoff. Melvill was seen as a surprise choice, because after the previous flight he had said he wanted to take a break from flying SpaceShipOne and ride his motorbike more.
Manifest Under Ansari X PRIZE rules, the flight was required to carry 180 kg payload, to simulate two 90 kg human passengers. Scaled Composites announced early on that this, their first X PRIZE flight, would carry inanimate payload rather than live passengers. The payload included:
X PRIZE flight monitoring equipment, known as the "gold box" the Explorers Club flag, by arrangement between the Explorers Club and the X PRIZE Foundation video equipment, producing a video stream that was broadcast live mementos from team members, including: photographs personal tools, including Burt Rutan's college slide rule tree seedlings the ashes of Burt Rutan's mother, Irene Rutan, who had died a few years earlier an heirloom watch a copy of Charles Lindbergh's book The Spirit of St. Louis a teddy bear being carried for the British charity Great North Air Ambulance lead ballast to make up the payload mass The practice of carrying arbitrary non-functional items into space, which has previously been carried out by many Space Shuttle missions, is evidence that space travel is still widely seen as special. The value of symbolic items increases enormously if the item has flown in space, due to the restricted access to space. The teddy bear being carried for charity will be auctioned at a much higher price than it would otherwise command. Scaled Composites employees were made to sign a contract forbidding them from selling the mementos they put on the flight. SpaceShipOne and White Knight bore several logos for the flight. These were:
Scaled Composites "SpaceShipOne: a Paul G. Allen project" on SpaceShipOne "White Knight" on White Knight Virgin Galactic, on the tails, following the signing earlier in the week of an agreement for Virgin Galactic to license Tier One technology for space tourism Virgin, on the fuselage Ansari X PRIZE, as required by X PRIZE rules The Spirit of St. Louis, a science center M&M's, apparently in an act of sponsorship inspired by Melvill's antics with M&M's during flight 15P 7-Up Plus Champ Car World Series
Crew
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