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UA9FBV > SAT 11.04.04 06:14l 43 Lines 1864 Bytes #999 (0) @ AMSAT
BID : ANS-102.06
Read: DB0FHN GUEST
Subj: FAA Issues License for Sub-Orbital Manned Rocket Tests
Path: DB0FHN<DB0FOR<DB0MRW<OK0PKL<OK0PPL<DB0RES<ER3KAZ<R3CR<UR6IUG<UA9FBV
Sent: 040411/0408Z @:UA9FBV.PRM.RUS.AS #:57585 [Perm] GATEWAY $:ANS-102.06
From: UA9FBV@UA9FBV.PRM.RUS.AS
To : SAT@AMSAT
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 102.06 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD. April 11, 2004
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-102.06
The U.S. Department of Transportation announced Wednesday that it issued
the world's first license for a sub-orbital manned rocket flight.
The license was officially issued from April 1 by the Federal Aviation
Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation to Scaled
Composites of Mojave, Calif., headed by record setting aviator Burt Rutan,
for a sequence of sub-orbital flights spanning a one-year period.
The FAA sub-orbital space flight license is required for U.S. contenders in
the X-Prize competition, a high-stakes international race ultimately to
launch a manned, reusable private vehicle into space and return it safely to
Earth.
The X- Prize foundation will award $10 million to the first company or
organization to launch a vehicle capable of carrying three people to a
height of 100 kilometers (62.5 miles), return them safely to Earth, and
repeat the flight with the same vehicle within two weeks.
Twenty-seven contestants representing seven countries have already
registered for the X-Prize contest, modeled on the $25,000 Orteig Prize for
which Charles Lindbergh flew solo from New York to Paris in 1927.
In its 20 years of existence, the FAA's Office of Commercial Space
Transportation has licensed more than 150 commercial launches of unmanned
expendable launch vehicles. This license is the first to authorize manned
flight on a sub-orbital trajectory.
While the highest criteria to issue a license is public safety, applicants
must undergo an extensive pre- application process, demonstrate adequate
financial responsibility to cover any potential losses, and meet strict
environmental requirements.
[ANS thanks SpaceDaily for the above information]
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