Gravity Probe B

[Zeroth]

Can anyone explain about the recent experiment done the past few months and still going on regarding one of Einstein's Theories? It was published in The Star Newspaper a while ago. Sorry if i sound so sketchy, i am not really sure. :)

[USSDefiantNX74205]

I believe you are talking about Gravity Probe B? The one to test Einstein's theory on whether light bends around an object of huge mass and gravity?

[USSDefiantNX74205]

I read about it on the Star a while ago and wondered what happened to it too...

[Zeroth]

oh... yeah... gravity probe B, my mistake... U know, if its true, then newton's laws of gravity is wrong...

[chiunlin]

Here's the official website from Satnford University
http://einstein.stanford.edu/

[Europa]

The latest mission status is that the calibration phase is extended for about a month before the 14-month science activity phase will be initiated. Moreover, for those interested in the results, you will have to wait at least 6 months more before the scientists issue a preliminary result.

In the meantime, for all those who are interested about the latest news from the space industry, you can check out the latest news from the Cassini flyby of Saturn?s outermost known moon, Phoebe and its imminent insertion into Saturn orbit on June 6, flying through a gap in its rings in the process.

There is also first commercial suborbital flight of SpaceShipOne from the first inland spaceport at Mojave Desert in about 24 more hours. This historic flight is due to be launched on June 21st (exact time still unknown). At press time, the first astronaut to be launched not from any government space agency is also unknown. The secrecy surrounding the first non-governmental piloted flight to leave the Earth's atmosphere is in place as this team is vying for the Ansari X-Prize (previously called just the X-Prize) competition. To the uninitiated, the X-Prize aims to stimulate the development of commercial space tourism by awarding a $10 million prize to the first private team to build and fly a reusable spaceship capable of carrying three individuals on a sub-orbital flight. The leader of the team mentioned is Burt Rutan, head of Scaled Composites, builder of SpaceShipOne. Some might be familiar with Burt Rutan as he had built and flown the renowned Voyager, the first aircraft to fly nonstop around the world without refueling in 1986.

[Zeroth]

Anyone watched the venus fly-by?

[USSDefiantNX74205]

Breaking news: SpaceShipOne successfully made the first privately funded spaceflight, reaching an altitude of 62.5 miles over the Mojave desert.

[Europa]

I believe Zeroth is referring to the Venus transit on June 8th.
Forgot all about it on the big day itself.

For the SpaceShipOne inaugural flight into space, it seems that not everything went well. But it still went into SPACE! Hopefully they'll reach their intended attitude target of 360,000 feet instead of that measly 328,000 feet.

[Zeroth]

yar, i totally missed it... darn...

Wow... spaceshipone done it d? erm, any where for me to read an article on it?

They din win the x-prize yet rite?

[Europa]

Well, the news is all over the Net, if you know where to find it.

The news on SpaceShipOne, or SS1 for short is headline news on CNN, Space.com and you can also check out the latest updates on www.scaled.com

The Ansari X-Prize requires a second flight to be flown within 2 weeks of the first flight entered into the competition. As this is classified a test flight, it would not be considered for the competition. Besides, the additional requirement for the Ansari X-Prize is for the craft to successfully conduct at least a suborbital flight with at least 3 person or an equivalent payload in the vehicle. This flight's crew is only the pilot(or rather the astronaut now) with rocket fuel as its payload. But do expect them to launch their first serious bid within 2 months as they are already very very close to achieving their mission requirements. It's not done earlier as there's some problems with the flight, and more time is needed to iron out the problems.