February 1, 2003
Pictures from last year's visit to XCOR Aerospace, Mojave, California, 25 September 2001
Today's events remind me that I never got around to posting these photos anywhere. In September of 2001, friend Anton Sherwood and I were on a long roadtrip back from training at Front Sight, and had a few hours on our hands. I suggested a side trip to the Civilian Flight Test Center at Mojave Airport in southern California. I enquired at the FBO for the address of XCOR Aerospace, and was told the location of their main office a few blocks away. I called ahead and was graciously welcomed into the production & prototype lab while someone tracked down "Rocket Plumber" Doug Jones, a long-time poster on several mailing lists I'd been subscribed to.
Doug very hospitably met us two strangers and offered to show us a rocket engine testbed, the EZ-Rocket, that he and colleagues had been working on. What a treat! We jumped at the offer, and were let in to see this:
This machine has gone on to be piloted by Dick Rutan on several occasions, such as this day on which 2 flights were made in turnaround fashion.
Here's Doug Jones giving me and Anton the rundown on the testbed craft:
Here, Anton Sherwood gets a good, close look in the cockpit:
A note about why I chose just now to post these photos...
I've been following much of the blogosphere coverage of the tragedy, especially the coverage on Samizdata by long-time space advocate Dale Amon, a respected member of the "spacer community". I was truly annoyed at the derisive comments of a poster to one of Dale's articles, who likened XCOR and others to "hobby space clubs", and felt I should draw some attention to the amazing work being done by one of those "clubs".
Keep up the good work, Doug!
Posted by Russell Whitaker at February 1, 2003 7:13 PM | TrackBack