A breath-taking shot of the M2F2 on the ground

Wow.

Just got back from Dryden. I have never been here before - I’ve been to other NASA centers, and they have different feels to them – some feel like universities, some like space centers (which is why they are called Research and Flight centers, respectively) but this one is a testing facility, and everything about just shouts “The Right Stuff”.

Out in front are several test airplanes on display, with small placards telling us what role in history each plane played – this one figured out trans-sonic flight, this one figured out super-sonic flight, etc.  All these things that we take for granted today were figured out by very brave men who flew these obviously few-of-a-kind contraptions, with cockpits so small and stuffed with instruments that you wonder how they could ever see where they were flying…

And right there, between the X-1 and the X-15, I see an old pal – Steve Austin’s aircraft.  You remember Steve, right?  The Six Million Dollar Man?  The opening sequence for each episode had obviously-real footage of a test aircraft being dropped from the underwing of a large jet (a B-52?) and proceeding to rocket away (”Steve Austin, astronaut…”) losing control, and barely managing to crash-land on a lake bed, skidding to a stop after ploughing the desert floor. (”A man barely alive…”)

I mentioned that to John Kelly (our host) since I know the flights were held here (where else?) and as it turns out, John is familiar with the real pilot from the crash sequence - Bruce Peterson – who indeed survived the crash, and actually lost an eye.  (to a hospital acquired infection – isn’t history ironic?)

But the point is made – this is where the Right Stuff happened, this is where Neil Armstorng learned to fly (and crashed) the Lunar Lander Training Vehicle (more on that later), and this is where exciting beyond-the-cutting-edge stuff happens.  This will be a great place for the games.

(For a bit of Nostalgia…)

NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center

We’re headed for our first meeting at NASA Dryden today – our new proposed venue.  Our group includes  Ted Semon (The Space Elevator Blog guy), Keith Mackey (Our Helicopter Guru), Dave Marcotte (TRUMPF’s Laser Guru) Andy Petro (Our Boss at NASA Centennial Challenges) and yours truly.

It’s a five hour drive for me from home, which is nice, but everyone else flew in – Florida to Chicago.

I’m excited - not far from here is the Mojave Airport, where about 5 years ago Burt Rutan launched his SpaceShipOne to win the X-PRIZE.  We drove down here in an RV to watch all three space shots, and the buzz and atmosphere were ab excellent demonstration of what powerful tools technology challenges are can be.

The circle is complete (obi-wan), I guess.

We’re here to meet with John Kelly, the director of Exploration at Dryden, who proposed Dryden as a possible site for the games. We’ve got one meeting set up with the management board, and one meeting with the engineering group. The goal is to explain what we want to do, get them excited over the project, and show that we’ve got enough planned already that we can perform the games safely.  Nothing to it.

Above is an aerial view of Dryden and the dried lake-bed that’s next to it.  Notice to amazing doodles in the sand – the landing strips, and the compass rose – almost a mile in diameter! A convenient way for a disoriented test-pilot in a rocket plane to get his bearing…  As Vern said - this is sooo hard-core 50’s.  cool.

If things go well, I’ll propose to locate the games right at the compass rose, if that’s possible.

To read more:  see the official Dryden site, the wikipedia page, or just go see for yourself.

We’re linking up and staying the night in Lancaster, and will head over to the base (Dryden is inside Edwards Air Force base) bright and early tomorrow morning.  John arranged for a tour of the new CEV being designed and built by NASA – an extra treat!

More tomorrow then, after we get back to the hotel.