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CNN LIVE TODAY
Group of Engineers Bent on Making Outer Space More Accessible Takes Another Step in That Direction
Aired January 10, 2002 - 13:41 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The group of engineers bent on making outer space more accessible took another step in that direction today. They test flew their a prototype of a space station they hope one day will lead to the day you back your bags for a trip into space.
Our space correspondent Miles O'Brien standing by now in Mojave, California. He is there for the flight of the so-called "EZ Rocket."
Miles, what's the word.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon, greetings from the tarmac of Mojave Airport, in the high desert of California. About an hour ago, we witnessed the spectacular flight of this vehicle, which some say could be the first step toward cheaper access to space. This is a rocket-powered aircraft, the EZ Rocket. It has two rocket engines on the back. The man flying it is a legendary test pilot and fighter pilot, Dick Rutan.
Dick, how was the flight today? Two and a half minutes, and you were moving in a hurry, as I saw from the chase plate there.
DICK RUTAN, TEST PILOT: Well, it worked great. The rocket engines ran longer than we have had it before, which is about two and a half minutes, and we climbed eight and a half thousand feet over Mojave. They ran perfect, and they shut down clean, and we made a successful dead stick landing.
O'BRIEN: Let's look at the tape, which just happened a little while ago. And course the concept here, this little aircraft is not designed to go to space; it's not designed to go much above about 10,000 feet. Nevertheless, what they are trying to prove here is these rocket engines can be turned around more easily and operated more reliably.
So far, do you think they are proving that, Dick.
RUTAN: Well, certainly. The object was to develop reusable, reliable, affordable rocket engines for any kind of application that you can come up with.
O'BRIEN: How would you describe the acceleration for someone who hasn't had that kick? RUTAN: Well, it's pretty nice. It's considerably more than what we have normally. And we are flying in the speed ranges that are way up in the yellow arc, instead of down in the green arc, speed wise for the airplane, and then it climbs pretty rapidly. It's quite a thrill for a little plane like this.
O'BRIEN: The trip back down is a deadstick, powerless landing. How did that go?
RUTAN: Worked pretty good. We were a little concerned that the wind turned around on us, but the superior skill and cunning of this here pilot overcame it all.
O'BRIEN: He's a humble man, that Dick Rutan.
Let's take a walk around the wing here of this modified long EZ, which Dick and his brother, Burt, designed in the early '80s. This has -- the significant modification is the business end of it, which instead of a propeller has twin rocket thrusters which come up the back. You can you see those right there. They have those plugged up there, because there is some proprietary information there, so they don't want up to put that on the air.
But nevertheless, the chief engineer, Dan Delong, is one of the founders of the company, XCOR, which is behind all of this.
Dan, big picture here, what's the goal?
DAN DELONG, CHIEF ENGINEER: The goal is to show, exactly like the pilot just said, that we can do cheap, routine, reliable rocket engine operations, and we also use nontoxic propellants. One of our company's motto here is, if you can't spill it on your foot, we're not interested in using it.
O'BRIEN: So that alcohol with liquid oxygen, a lot easier to use with stuff on the space shuttle, for example. I can imagine there are people at home looking at this little craft saying, how can this lead to cheaper access to space. How can it?
DELONG: Well, this is just the first step. What we have done so far is show the low price and the reliability. We have another airplane on the drawing boards that, finances permitting, we will be able to fly to a hundred kilometers altitude, which really is space. You get astronaut wings at that altitude.
O'BRIEN: That's the next generation. This company, X-Core, based here at Mojave, needs about $10 million to get from this to that next generation, which would mean suborbital hops to space, like an Alan Shepard flight back in the early '60s, which might mean one day, Leon, if you are willing to spend about $98,000, could you take a quick ride to space.
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