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manasecret
06-16-2004, 08:39 PM
Since some people showed interest in the Venus transit across the Sun, but complained I posted it too late, I thought I'd pass on some information.

Note that I didn't write the rest of this, but I knew about it all. It was written by my brother through email.

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To all:

This month is going to be truly marvelous in terms of exploring space.

On Monday, June 21, the leading contender for the ANSARI X-Prize will make a historic flight.

The ANSARI X PRIZE is a $10,000,000 prize to jumpstart the space tourism industry through competition between the most talented entrepreneurs and rocket experts in the world. The $10 Million cash prize will be awarded to the first team that:

€ Privately finances, builds & launches a spaceship, able to carry three people to 100 kilometers (62.5 miles)
€ Returns safely to Earth
€ Repeats the launch with the same ship within 2 weeks

The ANSARI X PRIZE competition follows in the footsteps of more than 100 aviation incentive prizes offered between 1905 and 1935 which created today's multibillion dollar air transport industry.

The leading contender for this prize is SpaceShipOne built by Scaled Composites. On Monday at 6:30 a.m. PDT they will launch the White Knight which carries SpaceShipOne to approximately 40,000 feet. At that point, it will release (drop) from its carrier aircraft, ignite its rocket and climb to an altitude of over 330,000 feet. This is still only a test flight as there will be only a single pilot. But, it will still be the first time that a privately built, manned spacecraft has reached space. This has the potential to be as important as Lindbergh’s solo flight across the Atlantic. Remember, to Lindbergh’s contemporaries his achievement was of little practical value at the time. However, their grandchildren (you & me) now routinely fly around the country and the world. Imagine a day 60 years from now when a space travel company’s slogan might be, “You are now free to move about the cosmos.”

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The second bit of news comes from Saturn via NASA.

The Cassini probe will enter Saturn’s orbit late on June 30. The pictures that have been coming from the probe on its approach have been truly spectacular! Cassini was launched from Kennedy Space Center on Oct. 15, 1997. Since then Cassini took a 2 billion mile "gravity-assist" route, in which it passed by Venus (twice), Earth, and Jupiter in such a way that the gravity of those planets gave the spacecraft an extra boost, increasing its speed enough to travel to Saturn. A little bit of the momentum that the planets had in their orbit around the Sun was actually transferred to the spacecraft -- not enough to make a difference to the planets, but enough to propel Cassini to Saturn!

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I’m providing some links below for you to explore for yourself!

ANSARI X PRIZE: http://www.xprize.org/

SCALED COMPOSITES: http://scaled.com/

CASSINI: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm

Have fun!! :)