Late last night I posted on a rumor that Google had acquired SpaceShipOne and was putting it in building 43 at Google HQ in Mountain View. More information started coming in immediately from commenters. One reader emailed to tell me Larry Page is on the Board of Trustees of the X Prize foundation (SpaceShipOne won their challenge), establshing a connection. But other commenters sent in recent pictures of SpaceShipOne at the Smithsonian in Washington DC. My source was good, but it was clear there was more to the story. To solve the mystery I said I’d send an iPod Shuffle to the first person that took a picture of the ship today and sent it to me.
Thanks to readers, I now know the rumor is false. Google did not acquire SpaceShipOne. But they did acquire a full scale replica of the ship and have indeed installed it in building 43 at Google. We have video of the actual ship today at the Smithsonian (see below), as well as two independent photographs of the replica at Google HQ. We’re sending all three people iPod Shuffles. Congrats to Chris Seline at Searchles (video of actual ship), Karl D (replica pictures - top left and bottom) and Willard McClellan (replica picture - top right). My favorite picture is this one, showing the crane they’ll use to get the replica ship into Google. Also see here and here. The video and pictures are below.
By the way, if you’d like to get your own full scale replica of SpaceShipOne, you can.
I love the Internet.
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Say what you want about google, these guys are brilliant at building morale and making it a awesome place to work!
Putting a replica of SpaceShipone in my letter to Santa as we speak.
Can you say Enron 2.0?
The Internet loves you back, Mike.
Chris Seline (aka dumbfounder)
http://www.searchles.com/
The one hanging in the Smithsonian seems kind of pristine, to have gone into space and returned. Are you sure its not the replica and Google has the real one, finally restored to ‘like new’ condition?
It was actually dented up pretty badly, but you just couldn’t tell from the crappy video I took.
This just in: Google has installed a pencil sharpener in Room 254. I can barely believe it myself. What could this mean?
What could it mean?
Google had to cut their office supply budget (no more mechanical pencils) after buying You Tube and SpaceShipOne.
This sounds like a compelling story. I’m on it.
Another twist to the mystery?
If you look at the registration number on the photo in front of Google HQ it is N328KF. According to the FAA registry this is serial number 001 of Scale Composites’ SpaceShipOne.
Also if you look at the following photo which I took minutes after its maiden flight the numbers match.
So this is the original (Photos of the second flight have the same registration number on them. So which one is in the Smithsonian?
Here’s a link to photos of the original:
SpaceShipOne after first flight.
SpaceShipOne just before second flight.
The replica must be bearing the same registration numbers as the original.
I went back after my first posting. Just as I was arriving, I saw SpaceShipOne launched up and over Building 43!
It went over the building and onto a second story scaffold. It was lowered onto heavy-duty dollies and rolled into the hole in the side of the building
I added 3 pix on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59666465@N00/
And 4 or 5 videos on YouTube. They’re short and low-res taken with my CoolPix 3100. (the 5th one is currently having trouble uploading on my @#$#% Earthlink DSL line)
Start with this one, then look at the others under my UserID
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQrKWUuZP_g
Thanks for being generous with the iPods!
Karl
I think it’s a stunt set up by the producers of the movie “The Prestige”
Too much to spend on a toy, too little to afford a mechanical pencil. Google are really a place to work in.
In a turn of events, the YouTube fellas just bought the real SpaceShipOne, and picked up Larry’s lunch bill for the next year.
Kidding. Man, I love the tubes!
Exceedingly interesting… The event is a case study of journalism and the new media. There are lessons here for other organizations…
http://kentsimperative.blogspo.....ntury.html
It is always interesting to see the wisom of the crowds and the reporting that takes place once a rumor is in motion in the blogosphere. Mystery solved, and some nice supporting pictures to boot.
if we look at this “toy” a bit more seriously, who knows, Google might enter cheap space flight business one day
at least, Google has the power to promote these things on enormous scale, take the Google’s solar thingee they just did..
but, erm, why?
this makes the indulgent decadence (re: acquiring arts-world trinkets) of the investment banks seem positively rational by comparison.
wonder whose budget it comes from?
sums google up really, along with the current dot.com-esque boom we are experiencing - only the nouveau riche can do things as crass as this.
ps, it’s not even a real ’spaceship’ and nor are those on board true ‘astronauts’ … how appropriate.
Oh man…to turn that into a go-cart…
Ok…now I *really* have to work there. My favorite art in my living room is a copy of the X-Prize poster signed by the artist, Pat Rawlings, when the X-Prize was first announced years ago. I can see why Google added the replica as it’s just inspiring to be working along on projects and look up and remember that hey, we are just at the beginning of space exploration and new ideas *are* possible!
Congrats…..
This a fine thing to spend money on when you PE is 67 and a market cap of $140 billion.
Of course if the PE drops to something more normal investors might see this as a bit of a boondoggle.
Michael Tanne, re the registry number…. It would not be a replica if it did not replicate the registry number on the side. The replica hanging at Meadows Field Airport in Bakersfield, CA also has the registry number. There’s another replica at a museum in Wisconsin which also has the registry number. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Oh i see….:)
Oh, now I see where the micro-kitchen budget has gone to.
how many buildings does googleplex have there???
what it’s meaning, but i would a dream to watch this in future…..