Page 118 - SB_G5.2_M6-10_Flip

DO NOT EDIT--Changes must be made through “File info”
CorrectionKey=TX-A
myNotes

12 White Knight continued to circle in the sky as we waited to escort
SpaceShipOne back to Earth. I studied the curvature of the earth and the
darkness of space overhead as I listened intently to Mike’s radio
transmissions. Mission control called, “328,000 feet,” and I cheered with joy.

We later found out that Mike’s actual altitude was 328,491 feet, a mere 408
feet past the boundary of space! We had done it! We’d sent a man into space
in a spaceship we built with our own hands.

13 Although it took almost an hour for White Knight to carry SpaceShipOne
to 50,000 feet, it took less than twenty minutes for the spaceship to come
back to Earth. That’s because it traveled back at over 100,000 feet per
minute. That’s about Mach 3, three times the speed of sound!

14 As SpaceShipOne landed, I could see the crowd on their feet cheering.
Mike was led to a podium, and immediately flashbulbs started going off.
News channels all over the world carried the story that the first civilian
spaceship had made it safely to space and back again.

One of the cool things about he had just finished working on another
SpaceShipOne was that it could take off project and was able to jump right in.
from almost any airport in the world. But it takes more than luck and timing.
The spaceships built by NASA have to It takes a lot of hard work, too. Matt says

take off from special launch pads the subjects that helped him land his
several hundred yards from spectators. job were math, physics, science, and art.
The large rocket boosters used to get One of the biggest thrills he got
them off the ground create a lot of heat from this project was just being a part

and exhaust. of the team that changed history. “We
How hard is it to be part of a cool are at the beginning of something
project like this? Sometimes, it’s simply huge,” Matt says. “I can feel the wave
being in the right place at the right forming. The support is huge, and this

time. When Matthew Stinemetze was time the space race is here to stay.”
offered the position of project engineer,

exhaust Exhaust is the gas that comes out of an engine as a waste product.
physics Physics is the scientific study of matter and energy.

118