SpaceShipOne
sits underneath its mothership, the White Knight,
on an early
test flight - photo courtesy NASA
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShip One
SpaceShipOne
is the first manned, private spaceship to fly into space. It will
also be the prototype for the first commercial spaceflights starting
in 2009.
The appropriately named SpaceShipOne's history making flight occurred
on June 21, 2004 when test pilot Mike Melvill became the first civilian
to pilot a craft into space.
SpaceShipOne
made three flights to altitudes greater than 100 kilometres - the
edge of the Earth's atmosphere - to capture the prestigious Ansari
X Prize.
The
rocket plane was first carried to a launch altitude of 50,000 feet
(15 kilometers) by its mothership, "White Knight". It was
then released, with its rocket engine propelling it through the atmosphere.
SpaceShipOne
was built by Burt Rutan's company Space Composites, a company funded
by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
Rutan
is regarded as one of the world's leading aircraft engineers and designers
and a space visionary. He has made calls for space entrepreneurs to
pick up where NASA left off in pushing man into space.
In
2003 he was named "Business Leader in Aerospace" by Scientific
American magazine.
He
is also renowned for designing and building the Voyager, the first
plane to fly around the world non-stop without refueling.
Branson Deal
Sir
Richard Branson's company Virgin galactic has contracted Bert Rutan's
company, Scaled Composites, to design and build spacecrafts for its
inaugural flights into space - planned for 2009.
The view from
inside the cockpit of SpaceShipOne
- photo
courtesy Scaled Composites
INFORMATION ON SCALED COMPOSITES AND SPACESHIP ONE
Scaled Composites website
Videos
of SpaceShipOne's flights
Mission
Control for SpaceShipOne
SpaceShipOne
photo gallery
SpaceShipOne
FAQ
SpaceShipOne
slide show
Information
sheets, test logs