Captain Wayne “Terry” Wong, a 1997 U of T alumnus, may become one of the first Canadians to travel to the edge of space in a privately financed spaceship. Wong is part of the Canadian Arrow team, one of two Canadian competing projects enlisted in the Ansari X Prize competition which hopes to drive forward private space flights and space tourism. Captain Wong is one of six astronauts that are currently training to achieve this historical step. The Canadian Arrow, following the historical flight of the American SpaceshipOne on June 21, should take off for its first test-flight no later than August.
Wong knew since the age of four he would become an astronaut. He decided to join the Canadian Arrow because he thinks this team has the best chance in Canada of winning the competition. “The Canadian Arrow is the wildcard of the X-Prize. Charles Lindbergh was not the favourite to win the Orteig prize in 1927, but he did cross the Atlantic by plane, and was the first one to do it. This is why his exploit is now written in all [our] memories. Even if we have less funding than number one Paul Allen’s American SpaceshipOne, I am sure we will create a great surprise.”
Philanthropist and Microsoft cofounder Allen invested $27 million (USD) in SpaceShipOne, built by Scaled Composites whose founder Burt Rutan gained fame when he designed Voyager, the first airplane to circumnavigate the world wihout stopping to refuel. Mike Melville became the first civilian astronaut when he successfully flew SpaceShipOne 100 km above the Mojave desert in California on June 21. Not carrying the required weight to simulate two extra passengers, this flight is just a test and cannot count towards the X Prize.
As an astronaut for Canadian Arrow, Captain Wong is in charge of the centrifuge program and training for all soon-to-be astronauts, using knowledge that he acquired during his graduate studies at U of T.
The Ansari X-Prize, whose advisory committee includes Buzz Aldrin and Arthur C. Clarke, will award $10 million (USD) to the first team to fly three people in a privately funded spaceship at an altitude of 100km (commonly considered as the frontier to outer space), land safely, and, to prove reusability, do it again within a period of 14 days. The fierce battle between 26 teams from 7 different nations started in 1996, and is still going on.
Wong thinks the impact of the X Prize for the development of space exploration will be phenomenal. “The private sector will break all costs down, and stand up against any kind of international politics or subsidized launch platform. Just like it did for computers at a time when only governments and large corporations could afford them, the private sector will open the market to more people and lower the costs of such expensive systems. This is what will happen with space travel and space tourism in the very near future.”
He does not know yet if he will sit in the Canadian Arrow for the historical flight that could put Canada on the other side of this new frontier, but he is hoping for the best. Four astronauts out of six should fly the rocket before the end of the competition, two of them being used as backup crewmembers.
The da Vinci project, founded in 1996, is the other Canadian team competing for the Ansari X-Prize. Torontonian Brian Feeney leads the da Vinci project, which uses a reusable helium balloon to lift the spacecraft. He will be speaking at U of T in mid-October as part of the U of T Astronomy and Space Exploration Society’s “Faces of Space” Lecture Series.
