X2 SS1 Burn Time?

Does anyone know if SS1 did the full burn time of 88 seconds on the X2 flight - it didn't feel like it to me.

I know the burn went on for longer than the X1 flight as the height reached was 30,000 or so feet higher, but I was wondering how much more kick the SS1 had, and if they turned it off early, why they did so? (another envelope expansion flight again?)

dunno if they shut it down early again, but if they did, it was the prudent thing to do. Higher you go, faster you go coming down, subjecting the ship to higher loads and increasing the risk of something breaking off or jamming.

Each of the last three SpaceShipOne flights has had the goal of breaking the X-15 altitude record of 67 miles. This last one was the first one where they didn't lose altitude to one condition or another.

No Franklin, I think you are wrong about the intent of Rutan's barnstormers. I was pretty sure the goal had something to do with winning some sort of prize. I note that you managed to once again squeeze in a reference to the X-15, your most favorite thing, many points for achieving a somewhat difficult manouevre there. In any case it doesn't even approach answering dolby_uk's question.

Actually, I don't know the answer either, but I figure if Franklin can burn bandwidth pointlessly then I can too . However, I will at least throw in a supposition or two.

If they didn't do the full burn time (hopefully we'll learn about the details soon) then it's probable that the pilot made sure that the burn was long enough to include a reasonable margin for success.

Xprize flight #1 (77 second burn to 337500 feet)
Xprize flight #2 (?? second burn to 368000 feet)

Hey we should do a sweepstakes on this, try to successfully guess the burn time before they announce it ... my bet is ... um ... ah heck ... how about 81 seconds.

DKH

I remember to have read of 84 seconds burn-time.




Dipl.-Volkswirt (bdvb) Augustin (Political Economist)

Bummer

Isn't that the maximum burn-time though? Maybe they did the maximum? I'm just interested in how much lea-way they had - the further up you go, the more zero-g, which for paying passengers is more worth the money. Mind you, it also implies greater g-force on you on the way down I believe.

Btw DKH, I would think that breaking the X-15 altitude was in Rutan et al's minds, although not the primary objective obviously

The maximum time has been reported to be 89 seconds after the first flight...



Dipl.-Volkswirt (bdvb) Augustin (Political Economist)

During the after-flight speaches, Burt mentioned that they had hoped to surpass the X15 altitude record, and whas pleased that they had done so. /jd

[quote="Ekkehard Augustin"]The maximum time has been reported to be 89 seconds after the first flight...[quote]

Oh well, close anyway

Yeah and I did read that Rutan made some sort allusion to it, but the way our X-15 fanboi Franklin says it it's like it WAS the primary objective.

I note that dolby_uk says that the max burn time was 88 seconds. Ekkhard says 84 or 89. Anybody got a link to the truth? It's got to be out there.

DKH.

Is that why they call it the X-Prize

Can't find any specific information on the Scaled site or elsewhere, but I may not be looking hard enough. Or maybe it's a conspiracy...

Ah, I didn't look closely enough.

http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/040929_spaceshipone_x-prize_flight_1.html

Using the extremely scientific method of watching time tick off on my video of X2 , burn time was 85 +/- 1 seconds. I've been to all three space flights and this is the first time I got the entire burn on tape - it was SO cool!