Second X Prize flight scheduled for next week

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- The creators of a private rocket plane will go ahead with plans for another launch next week in a quest to claim a multimillion-dollar prize, despite a harrowing flight in which the spacecraft rolled dramatically while hurtling toward the edge of the atmosphere.

Organizers of the $10 million Ansari X Prize announced without elaboration Thursday night that SpaceShipOne designer Burt Rutan had told them he would go ahead with Monday morning's scheduled flight.

The prize, intended to spur development of space tourism, is a competition for privately developed spacecraft capable of carrying three people -- or a pilot and equivalent weight -- 62 miles high. The competition requires two successful flights by the same craft within a 14-day span.

...

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/10/01/space.xprize.ap/index.html

Looking at the in-cabin video, it would appear that the pilot was applying full control authority to conteract that roll, and the roll was increasing in amplitude as he did so.

Seems to me that this could have been an issue with the RCS, or it could have been some defect in the rocket nozzle that was applying torque to the vehicle.

But he got more than he asked for :-)