Unrestricted Dream Space

Written by Charlie Durgin

Stu Witt is a busy man.

He’s the General Manager of the Mojave Air & Space Port in Mojave, CA.

In between fielding media requests from CBS, USA Today, and the equally-esteemed Bakersfield Magazine, he’s also managing staff and overseeing events at his facility that are, well, rocket science.

On this particular August afternoon, Burt Rutan’s world famous Scaled Composites has flown their White Knight aircraft; it’s the one that will ferry SpaceShipTwo into suborbit along with six paid passengers in the near future. The passengers will be able to see the blackness of space through the ship’s portholes, and they’ll also get a rare view of Earth below.

But there is more going on at what some call “The New Area 51.”

Just don’t expect Witt to be especially chatty about it.

“We are very protective of tenants and their operations...The same reason that Orville and Wilbur went to Kitty Hawk in 1897, is the same reason people were drawn to Mojave,” Witt says of the remote high desert location.

"Capitalism is the best way to drive innovation. If we relied on the government to build the first airline, we’d have one giant airplane that flies two times a year.” –michael Mealling

“Our claim is we have unrestricted dream space,” Witt adds, using a popular unofficial slogan, “and our people want protections from the encroachment of the press, and they want protection from industrial espionage.”

If one were to have unfettered access to the grounds, they would see many blackened windows and little sign of what was happening behind them.

“The truth is, most hangar doors are closed unless they are moving an object in or out; people are very protective of their trade secrets, as they should be,” Witt says.

Michael Mealling, Vice President of Business Development and Chief Financial Officer of Masten Space Systems can understand, but doesn’t always subscribe to the practice. Masten builds affordable unmanned spacecraft—delivering loads between 50 and 100 kilograms to space for experiments.

When their service goes online, it’ll cost $250 a kilogram at the special “educational” rate to take your experiment or test into space. A bargain when you consider it can currently cost anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000 to put something into low orbit, according to different industry websites.

“We come from an IT background, so we are used to bugs. We’ll show you our explosions and mishaps,” Mealling explains.

And true to form, Masten regularly posts videos of successes and failures to YouTube for all to see.

According to Mealling, having an open door policy is an exception rather than the rule.

“Take Scaled Composites,” Mealling elaborates. “They’re ‘closed mouth,’ and that’s Burt’s style; he doesn’t tell you what he’s done until he’s done it.”

And what has Scaled Composites done? Just about everything. In the ‘80s, Burt Rutan cooked up the design for Voyager, the first aircraft to circumvent the globe without stopping or refueling. In the new millennium, Rutan’s appetite for innovation has not waned.

Scaled Composites has made numerous ownership changes and partnerships over the years, with perhaps the most compelling to the public being his alliance with British billionaire Sir Richard Branson. In 2005, Branson’s Virgin Group partnered with Scaled Composites to form The Spaceship Company, and the simple name belies a serious business.

According to a press release on Virgin Galactic’s website, The Spaceship Company recently conducted a very successful “Captive Carry” flight test. Virgin Galactic, a division of Branson’s Virgin Group, aspires to send six private passengers into suborbit for a weightlessness experience and stunning views of the Earth. The flight involves a spacecraft of the “SpaceShipTwo” designation being flown to altitude by a “mothership.”

According to the same press release, “VSS Enterprise remained attached to its unique WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft, VMS Eve, for the duration of the 2 hour, 54 minute flight, achieving an altitude of 45,000 feet.”

“This [was] a momentous day for the Scaled and Virgin teams. The captive carry flight signifies the start of what we believe will be an extremely exciting and successful spaceship flight test program,” Rutan says via official statement.

According to company statements, Virgin Galactic has already taken around $45 million in deposits for space flight reservations from over 330 people wanting to experience space for themselves.

The program still has benchmarks to complete before the lucky 330 on the reservation list get their shot at proving they’ve got the right stuff.

Company statements indicate that “the VSS Enterprise test flight program will continue through 2010 and 2011, progressing from captive carry to independent glide and then powered flight, prior to the start of commercial operations.”

So, while this means the 330 on the short list still have at least a year to wait, it means that the rest of us might be able to catch a test flight of this amazing craft if we make our way to Mojave.

While Rutan’s policy of reservation seems rooted in humility and a desire to follow through before boasting, Mealling says there is solid business sense for staying quiet about technological breakthroughs and plans.

“We are commercial companies, and we are trying to grow the business, and one slip could mean a lost contract, and that lost contract could mean the end of the business and the dream,” Mealling adds.

Recently, Masten Space Systems took a $1 million-dollar X Prize for winning the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge last year. The prize was a significant take for Masten; according to Mealling, they’ve only spent $3 million total so far.

“Capitalism is the best way to drive innovation,” Mealling says. “If we relied on the government to build the first airline, we’d have one giant airplane that flies two times a year.”

For all the excitement that space travel brings, there is a lot more going on in Mojave that is ground based. Many folks at the Mojave Air & Space Port say that the future can be seen from the high desert, and if the hard numbers are any indication, the future will involve more trains than it does jet packs.

“Ninety percent of our business is in other sectors (than space travel),” Witt adds. “Our growth business is train intermodal storage of wind components and other specialty shipment items that need cross country transit.”

In plain terms? “Progress Rail is here turning rail wheels, and if you’ve ever ridden skateboards, you know what ‘trucks’ are,” Witt explains, referring to the wheel and axle assembly that sits below the deck. While it isn’t futuristic, “Shipping by train is very cost effective, it’s much cheaper than trucking.”

The only problem it faces is one you won’t find in space, or the Mojave Air & Space Port for that matter-routes. “We don’t have enough rail lines,” he says.

Still, the heart of the matter lies in putting people into space. And NASA won’t be doing it much longer.

The Space Shuttle program will be scuttled in 2011, and after that, “we’ll be in the position of hitching rides to space from someone else,” Witt concludes.

"The Space Shuttle program will be scuttled in 2011, and after that, “we’ll be in the position of hitching rides to space from someone else.” –Stu Witt

In 2015 or 2016, the International Space Station will be positioned over the Pacific Ocean and deorbited. Then, the world’s most expensive object—at $100 billion, according to the General Accounting Office—will become a massive fireball as it reenters Earth’s atmosphere. So we might be running out of time to drive ourselves.

But there is hope at the Mojave Air & Space Port that another American mission, possibly private, will be shipping astronauts to space from American soil.

Firestar Technologies is doing promising work in new rocket fuels including the world’s first monopropellant, gas-cooled rocket engines.

Xcor Aerospace is developing reusable rockets, and has begun pre-selling tickets to ride its Lynx spacecraft into suborbit for just $95,000. Test flights are scheduled to begin for the one pilot-one passenger craft in 2011. Again, a bargain when compared to NASA’s rates, and even the $200,000 cost of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo.

You can see the future for yourself from the Voyager Restaurant in Mojave, CA. Just get a table, enjoy a meal, and let your eyes wander across the wide open dream space in Kern County’s high desert.

But given the super secret nature of these companies, don’t tell them you heard it here.

Article appeared in our 27-4 Issue - October 2010