Re: bulb smattering granville andrews duane

["Zachariah Jordan" <tcvozaym at netaddress dot com>]

The October flight of Rutan's SpaceShipOne won his team the $10 million X Prize, an award from a nonprofit foundation aimed at spurring civilian space flight.

 

 

For this latest challenge, Fossett and his mission control team at Kansas State University face a tricky triple threat: weather, sleep deprivation and conserving precious fuel.

When the shuttle re-entered the atmosphere, searing hot gases seeped into the wing and incinerated the spacecraft.The October flight of Rutan's SpaceShipOne won his team the $10 million X Prize, an award from a nonprofit foundation aimed at spurring civilian space flight.

In August 2003, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board officially concluded that insulating foam flew off the shuttle's external fuel tank during liftoff, striking and cracking a panel on the orbiter's wing. Fossett holds dozens of aviation and nautical records, including the fastest flight of a nonsupersonic airplane -- 742.02 mph (1,193.9 kph).

Next Wednesday or Thursday, weather permitting, the 60-year-old retired investor plans to board the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer in Salina, Kansas, and begin his journey toward Europe and the Middle East, over Asia and the Pacific, and back to Kansas.