SSO Roll

I haven't been able to get any of the streaming feeds to work, here. Did the ship take any damage? Have the figured out what caused the roll?

(glad Melville didn't get hurt)

As far as I could see, the ship appeared to be completely undamaged, even around the nozzle which was affected last time.

They don't know what the problem was, and apparently Burt Rutan wanted to abort before they'd reached 100km, but Mike Melvill kept it going over the boundary before switching off the motor.

I don't think they're too worried about it, because when the presenter was announcing that the next flight was likely to be on Monday, he then said "oh Burt says it might be Sunday".

Could just be windshear like before?

it gives a pretty good idea of just how much extra thrust the modified spacedev rocket is giving. They cut the engine off early, had more ballast, AND rolled but were still able to get higher then last time.

Amazing machine.

An overheated actuator that reset, according to the webcast.
Good luck next week, guys!

Actually that was the problem with the previous June 21st flight, not this one.

All the news seems to suggest it was something they'd seen in the flight simulators, and was not unexpected. Also, Melvill suggested that he may have done something to cause it - moved a control too fast, etc.

~Dan