Rocket Ship

Commercial space tourism got a boost when Virgin Galactic's rocket plane successfully completed its first manned test flight at the Mojave Air and Space Port. The aircraft, dubbed SpaceShipTwo, was dropped from a carrier plane at 45,000 feet and glided without power for more than 10 minutes before landing on the desert runway Sunday. The carrier plane, which resembles a flying catamaran because of its two fuselages, and the six-passenger rocket ship are in the midst of a test-flight program that will continue until Virgin Galactic, the space tourism company that owns the planes, believes it can begin commercial operations.

Winnebago Industries Inc., maker of the cult favorite recreational vehicles, reviewed and rejected an unsolicited $321.5 million takeover bid from a private equity firm Friday. In a letter , North Street Capital offered $11 per share in cash for Winnebago - a 29% premium over the Iowa company's Thursday close. But Winnebago said in a statement that the letter didn't have “sufficient information to deem the offer as credible” and that the proposal was conditional upon further due diligence and negotiation.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: If the kids ask, let's just say the 28-foot rocket ship in Torrance's Los Arboles Park blasted off on an important mission and temporarily lost its way in outer space. But luckily the loud voices of angry parents functioned as a beacon and brought the ship hurtling back to Earth. When the city dismantled the playground attraction in February because of safety concerns, the response was an immediate community uproar.

Seattle billionaire Paul Allen's outsized ambitions are getting a boost with the Mojave Desert groundbreaking of a hangar facility to build the world's largest airplane powered by six jet engines. Huntsville, Ala.-based Stratolaunch Systems Inc., the new commercial space venture unveiled last month by Allen and aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan, will build the airplane to lift a rocket ship to a high altitude. Once there, the rocket ship would separate from the carrier aircraft, then engage its rocket engines for its climb into space.

Lisa Stewart grew up playing at least once a week on the huge rocket ship jungle gym that once graced Laguna Beach's Bluebird Park. "It was very exciting because the higher up you got, the better view you had of the canyon," recalls Stewart, now 44. "They had a wheel at the top that you could turn and pretend you were captain." Stewart wants her 21-month-old son, Caden, to have the same experience.

Seattle billionaire Paul Allen's outsized ambitions are getting a boost with the Mojave Desert groundbreaking of a hangar facility to build the world's largest airplane powered by six jet engines. Huntsville, Ala.-based Stratolaunch Systems Inc., the new commercial space venture unveiled last month by Allen and aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan, will build the airplane to lift a rocket ship to a high altitude. Once there, the rocket ship would separate from the carrier aircraft, then engage its rocket engines for its climb into space.

Winnebago Industries Inc., maker of the cult favorite recreational vehicles, reviewed and rejected an unsolicited $321.5 million takeover bid from a private equity firm Friday. In a letter , North Street Capital offered $11 per share in cash for Winnebago - a 29% premium over the Iowa company's Thursday close. But Winnebago said in a statement that the letter didn't have “sufficient information to deem the offer as credible” and that the proposal was conditional upon further due diligence and negotiation.

Sleep is kind of a theme this week in Health--check out Media Mix on this page for information on books simply stuffed with sleepy facts. Still, we bet that nowhere among all those many pages will you find this novel tip for a more restful night: Forget all that behavior modification and melatonin stuff. Just cover yourself with important-looking electrodes. The downside: You might have to rent a rocket ship to sleep in.

With a wheeze and a clank, with a whir and a click and a screech of some sprockets and pulleys and belts, with a great belch of blue smoke and a blinding flash of light, the rocket ship takes off. That's how it generally happens in science-fiction movies, anyway. Your basic, garden-variety rocket ship is a noisy showoff that leaves no doubt about its intention to trample the laws of space and time into mealy mush. But there's an easier way. Flying faster than the speed of light is simple.

Fall just keeps getting better and better. Granted, I should spend more time attending art walks and viola recitals, maybe take up the oboe. I made myself a little promise the other morning that I'd really give all that a try. Till then, I attended several sporting events last weekend, coached in one of them (AYSO soccer) and played in yet a fourth ? a jangly-nerved touch-football league for the criminally insane. I'm not proud of my sports addiction. But acknowledgment is the first step toward recovery.

Commercial space tourism got a boost when Virgin Galactic's rocket plane successfully completed its first manned test flight at the Mojave Air and Space Port. The aircraft, dubbed SpaceShipTwo, was dropped from a carrier plane at 45,000 feet and glided without power for more than 10 minutes before landing on the desert runway Sunday. The carrier plane, which resembles a flying catamaran because of its two fuselages, and the six-passenger rocket ship are in the midst of a test-flight program that will continue until Virgin Galactic, the space tourism company that owns the planes, believes it can begin commercial operations.

Fall just keeps getting better and better. Granted, I should spend more time attending art walks and viola recitals, maybe take up the oboe. I made myself a little promise the other morning that I'd really give all that a try. Till then, I attended several sporting events last weekend, coached in one of them (AYSO soccer) and played in yet a fourth ? a jangly-nerved touch-football league for the criminally insane. I'm not proud of my sports addiction. But acknowledgment is the first step toward recovery.

It's fair to say that Dan Long has seen more of the universe than anyone but God. Month after month, year after year, Long has sat in a windowless room atop a windy mountain peak, watching the heavens scroll by on 12 monitors connected to the Apache Point Observatory's 98-inch telescope. He saw stars, galaxies and clusters of galaxies banded together like giant herds of animals on an unending savanna roll by. Less frequently, exotic denizens of deep space would pop up -- blinding quasars and supernovae, flaring up as brightly on the bank of TV screens as entire galaxies.

With a wheeze and a clank, with a whir and a click and a screech of some sprockets and pulleys and belts, with a great belch of blue smoke and a blinding flash of light, the rocket ship takes off. That's how it generally happens in science-fiction movies, anyway. Your basic, garden-variety rocket ship is a noisy showoff that leaves no doubt about its intention to trample the laws of space and time into mealy mush. But there's an easier way. Flying faster than the speed of light is simple.

An ebullient Michael W. Melvill wriggled out of his rocket ship at Mojave last week after a brief and violent roller coaster ride to the edge of space. Emotions overflowed. At a press conference later, the 63-year-old test pilot reflected -- unexpectedly, irrelevantly and beautifully -- about his wife, Sally, and how they married when he was 20 and she was 17.

Lisa Stewart grew up playing at least once a week on the huge rocket ship jungle gym that once graced Laguna Beach's Bluebird Park. "It was very exciting because the higher up you got, the better view you had of the canyon," recalls Stewart, now 44. "They had a wheel at the top that you could turn and pretend you were captain." Stewart wants her 21-month-old son, Caden, to have the same experience.

Correctly answer these questions and you, too, can be a Houston Rocket scientist. 1. What is a Dream Shake? a. An alarm clock. b. Something with ice cream. c. Hakeem (the Dream) Olajuwon faking with the basketball. 2. Who is Mad Max? a. Mel Gibson. b. Cornbread Maxwell. c. Vernon Maxwell. 3. Is the "H" in Hakeem silent? a. Yes. b. No. c. Sometimes.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - Even though its ubiquitous Internet search engine practically mints money, Google Inc. was widely seen as a company whose best days were behind it. It was written off as the next Microsoft Corp. - a staid high-tech giant in the shadows of Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc. that had lost its sense of urgency and innovative edge. But that sentiment has shifted dramatically over the last year, and when Google swings open the doors to its annual conference for software developers Wednesday, it won't just be showcasing its latest products.

Sleep is kind of a theme this week in Health--check out Media Mix on this page for information on books simply stuffed with sleepy facts. Still, we bet that nowhere among all those many pages will you find this novel tip for a more restful night: Forget all that behavior modification and melatonin stuff. Just cover yourself with important-looking electrodes. The downside: You might have to rent a rocket ship to sleep in.

Half a dozen times a year, Mike Kitagawa, a Woodland Hills resident, climbs into the cockpit of a 2,200-horsepower speedboat, then rips across a quarter-mile strip of water in 6.5 seconds. At 50, Kitagawa is one of speedboat racing's oldest drivers, having competedin 450 races since 1973. He says he has no plans to slow down: "I like the acceleration. I like the speed." Kiagawa races blown-gas hydroplanes,the dragster of the waters.