If you call 40 + vertical rolls minor, then, sure. But it was AWESOME to watch and I am glad that the phone went out last night so I had a chance to stay home and watch while I waited for BellSouth. The follow up PC was also entertaining, given that our perspective of "dangerous" is radically different from a test-pilot's. The video should be up by now on the X-Prize main page. It will probably take some time to load, though, as I imagine they are getting slammed.
Go here Then click on the X1 flight SpaceShip 1 button at the top right. It gives you a pop up window with the video,and you can click for the speed you want. And it works in Firefox, too.
At this point, it appears to be 20+ barrel rolls while SpaceShip One was climbing, and the pilot believes it may have been caused by an involuntary control input from the acceleration due to ignition.
Burt Rutan noted the design of of SSO leaves it somewhat unstable in roll, so it's prone to this sort of anomaly, just as the Jun 21 flight exhibited a pilot-induced roll oscillation. After that flight, Scaled modified its pilot training so its pilots could learn to avoid starting a PIO roll. This seems to be a similar type of anomaly that will be corrected via training modifications. Rutan also noted correcting the roll instability will have to be done in the next version of SSO.
Then click on the X1 flight SpaceShip 1 button at the top right. It gives you a pop up window with the video,and you can click for the speed you want. And it works in Firefox, too.
Burt Rutan noted the design of of SSO leaves it somewhat unstable in roll, so it's prone to this sort of anomaly, just as the Jun 21 flight exhibited a pilot-induced roll oscillation. After that flight, Scaled modified its pilot training so its pilots could learn to avoid starting a PIO roll. This seems to be a similar type of anomaly that will be corrected via training modifications. Rutan also noted correcting the roll instability will have to be done in the next version of SSO.