Scaledologists

04/26/04 00:00:00    

By Michael Mealling

I met Alan Boyle last week and I've added him (and others) to the new blog roll. Alan has an excellent review of last SA '04. Among other things he jumps into the fun speculation on when Scaled's attempt will be:

bq.

I'll throw in my totally unscientific guess, based more on the holiday calendar than on any inside information. Let's say the first spaceflight comes on July 4, with a fireworks display worthy of the Fourth. Then the suspense could build as the two-week deadline ticks down to the second, prize-winning flight on July 17. That's the anniversary of the 1962 X-15 flight that made Air Force pilot Robert White the first human to earn astronaut wings for a rocket plane flight. If that's the way it happens, you heard it here first.

His suggestion makes me think that the date will be a complex negotiation between Scaled and the Xprize folks for maximum press impact and a reasonable test regime. The only problem with the 4th is that people will be distracted, so while the 17th might be correct, I'm not so sure about the 4th. But then again, Alan knows a lot more about the inner workings of the news cycle than I do.

Hmmm…. with no reported damage from the last set of tests I think we might be due for a new flight sometime within the next week or so.