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SpaceShipOne was the first private manned vehicle to travel beyond earth's atmosphere. It was designed by aerospace innovator Burt Rutan, the chief of Scaled Composites and the designer of the Voyager airplane, the first airplane to circumnavigate the world without refueling. Financing for the project was provided by Paul Allen, the cofounder of Microsoft.
On June 21, 2004, SpaceShipOne was launched in the Mojave Desert by the White Knight carrier, which released the space vehicle at an altitude of 47,000 feet. Following the lighting of a rocket, SpaceShipOne spent approximately three minutes outside the earth's atmosphere. It was piloted by Michael Melvill, an experienced civilian test pilot who holds a number of aviation world records.
Following the success of its first launch, SpaceShipOne again blasted out of the atmosphere on September 29, 2004, this time in an attempt to win the Ansari X Prize, a $10 million award for the first privately developed manned rocket to reach space twice within 14 days. Despite a series of some 30 rolls during its ascent, SpaceshipOne achieved its goal and pilot Michael Melvill succeeded in reaching an altitude of 337,600 feet (nearly 64 miles or 103 kilometers). On October 4, 2004, less than a week later, SpaceShipOne reached an altitude of about 368,000 feet (nearly 70 miles or 114 kilometers), winning the X Prize and shattering a world record for suborbital flight that had been held by the X-15 rocket plane developed by NASA and the U.S. airforce since 1963. The October 4th date was selected to coincide with the 47th anniversary of the launching of the satellite Sputnik I in 1957, which began the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. This time, SpaceShipOne was piloted by former US navy test pilot Brian Binnie.
British entrepreneur Richard Branson announced that he plans to license the SpaceShipOne technology in order to begin offering commercial space tourism flights on a new carrier which is to be called Virgin Galactic. Flights are intended to begin by 2007.
SpaceShipOne itself is likely to be donated to the Smithsonian museum in Washington, D.C.
Last updated: November 10, 2004.
