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SpaceShipOne wins $10m Ansari X prize
HUMAN flight took a significant step forward today as the privately built SpaceShipOne flew into suborbital space for the second time in five days, securing the $10 million Ansari X Prize.
With pilot Brian Binnie at the controls, SpaceShipOne rocketed to an unofficial height of 368,000 feet, setting a new altitude record for the craft and proving that private industry can build a viable vehicle for sending paying passengers to space.
“This is a milestone for humanity,” said John Spencer, president of the Space Tourism Society.
Shortly after SpaceShipOne became airborne this morning, Spencer told SPACE.com the flight represents “the kickoff of the space tourist industry.”
Seconds after being released from the White Knight carrier plane somewhere above 46,000 feet, Binnie ignited SpaceShipOne’s hybrid rocket motor, boosting the craft above the target point of 100 kms required by the X Prize Foundation of St. Louis, Missouri in order to win the cash prize. The top altitude was confirmed by radar while SpaceShipOne was gliding back to Earth.
The Ansari X Prize is a $10 million purse for the first privately built vehicle that can safely haul a pilot and the equivalent weight of two passengers to the edge of space — then repeat the feat within two weeks.
Last week, SpaceShipOne, under the controls of pilot Mike Melvill, coasted above the 100-kilometre altitude point and successfully completed the first of the back-to-back X Prize flights.
The competition: SpaceShipOne’s apparent success is not expected dull enthusiasm of other rocketeers building suborbital vehicles, predicted Peter Diamandis, head of the X Prize Foundation, in a pre-flight interview with SPACE.com.
“If the Ansari X Prize is won…I think you’ll see the first Canadian, the first Russian, the first British, the first Romanian…all the X Prize teams outside the United States will continue their work to become the first of their nation to carry out a first private flight into space,” Diamandis said. “I think that’s still huge news.”
Arthritis drug recalled
US drug safety regulators are coming under fire for their response to years of suspicions, confirmed last week, that arthritis drug Vioxx increased the risks of heart attacks and strokes.
Merck’s withdrawal of Vioxx raised inevitable questions about whether the prescription drug taken by millions should have come off pharmacy shelves sooner, or at least carried stronger warnings.
Amid “mounting evidence over five years that this drug had cardiovascular risks, the (Food and Drug Administration) settled for almost a minimal amount of action, a small change in the product labeling,” said Thomas Moore, a health policy analyst at George Washington University.
The FDA should have given “a more prominent and clear warning,” Moore said.
Dr Eric Topol, a cardiologist who warned about heart risks from Vioxx in 2001, charged the FDA with “considerable failings” in its handling of the case.
The agency could have requested a one-year study in people at highest risk for heart problems, or advised doctors against prescribing Vioxx to anyone with heart disease, Topol said.
The criticism follows recent charges that the FDA was slow to react to another risk — a link between pediatric antidepressant use and suicidal behaviour. Concerns arose in May 2003, but only last month did FDA officials conclude there was a link between the drugs and suicidal acts by kids.
The FDA was “concerned and aware of the potential for cardiovascular effects with (Vioxx) for quite a few years,” acknowledged Steven Galson, acting director of the FDA’s Centre for Drug Evaluation and Research.
The risk was not fully clear until last week when Merck announced a three-year study of 2,600 patients showed those who took Vioxx were more likely to suffer heart attacks and strokes than others who took a placebo, FDA officials said.
Study on plant gene
A gene that lets a plant’s roots tell the leaves to stop growing when conditions are bad — such as when water is scarce or soil is too compacted — has been identified by University of Utah scientists.
This finding may help scientists develop ways to genetically engineer crops and other plants to be more productive in dry conditions.
The study appeared in the Oct. 5 issue of Current Biology.
“When you look at plants, it’s easy to think only about the above-ground parts you can see,” study leader Leslie Sieburth, an associate professor of biology, said in a prepared statement.
“But this study shows that the roots potentially play a huge role — in addition to supplying water and nutrients — in controlling how the plant comes to look as it does. It’s very easy to ignore the root, but our study shows we shouldn’t,” Sieburth said.
In research with a plant called thale cress, Sieburth and her colleagues identified a gene called BPS1 as a key player in the development of leaves. They found that manipulating BPS1 could change leaf development, even when plants had sufficient food and water. — Sci-tech World Report
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