Mike Melvill, the world’s first commercial and longtime test pilot for Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites, died on March 19 at the age of 85. Melvill flew SpaceShipOne, built by Scaled, to an altitude of a little more than 62 miles to become the first to officially go into space on a privately built spacecraft on Sept. 29, 2004. According to a reader he’d actually hit the mark three months earlier on a dress rehearsal. The flight, and another using he same spacecraft, enabled Scaled to claim a $10 million cash prize from billionaire Michael Ansari. Rutan had some prophetic words after Melvill recovered at Mojave Airport (later Spaceport). “Our success proves without question that manned space flight does not require mammoth government expenditures,” Rutan said at the time. “It can be done by a small company operating with limited resources and a few dozen dedicated employees.”
The flight itself was hardly a smooth transition to the commercial space era. Shortly after separating from the mothership WhiteKnightOne, the spacecraft went into an uncontrollable aerodynamic roll and completed 29 rotations before it ran out of atmosphere and Melvill was able to arrest it on the edge of space using control thrusters. He reached 337,600 feet (almost 64 miles). Melvill and his family built a Rutan-designed VariViggen from plans and they flew it from their home in Anderson, Indiana, to Rutan’s shop in Mojave in 1977. After flying the aircraft, the first completion, Rutan offered Melvill a job, and Melvill was the test pilot on all of Rutan’s designs. He retired in 2007.
He was an absolutely fine fellow.. He gave a presentation on that first flight at a fly in I went to in the months following that. I still have, proudly framed, an autographed picture from him. He made a statement that I have always remembered. Just before they took off, he said Rutan came to the cockpit, pointed to a single red button on the ship’s panel. This button apparently would terminate all activity. He said Burt looked at him and sternly said in a commanding voice, “DON’T PUSH THAT BUTTON!” My wife was with me. Ever since then, we both have frequently said when things don’t look good, “DON’T PUSH THAT BUTTON! Yet”. As we all walked from the presentation hanger, to the next which was filled with food, Mike and his wife were walking ahead, and she patted his butt. We thought that was so cute.
Let us hope our Narcissist-in-Chief doesn’t celebrate the demise of Mr. Melvill. Ha! Beat you guys to it.
No, no, no. Melvill did not “become the first to go into space on a privately built spacecraft on Sept. 29, 2004”. He *did* make the first of the two required flights for the $10 million dollar Ansari prize on that day, but he earned his astronaut’s wings around three months before, on the final shakedown flight prior to the record attempt.
I remember it well.
I read of their plans and called up a buddy who’d have enough interest to make a late night drive through the desert for the test flight. We arrived early with hopes of getting good spots – we ended up behind the ‘barriers’ (yellow safety tape) separating us from a taxiway. Overnight winds had knocked over half the Porta-Potties; concern was whether the early morning weather would cooperate.
It did, and takeoff was uneventful.
It seemed like hours later before it reached altitude, and was heading past the big, orange sun when the ship was released and you could see its plume as it went cutting across the sun, vanishing against the haze. You could hear a pin drop as thousands of people held their breath in unison…
…and then the plume broke out of the other side, and, I am told, thousands of people broke out in cheers. I can’t swear to that, ‘cuz I was hollering too loud to hear.
They towed the ship around the area behind a pickup on a victory tour after the landing. They came to a stop on the taxiway right in front of us where Dick Rutan – who was riding on the pickup tailgate – ran up to the edge of the taxiway, and came back with a sigh liberated from an audience member. He passed it to Melvill who proudly displayed it from the top of the ship where he was riding. It was a sports scoreboard style, proclaiming:
I well remember MIke flying his ‘Viggen to California, and the job offer. What a career! Mike was also the only person beside Dick Rutan and Jeanna Yeager to fly Voyager.
A modest very capable pilot. RIP.