Scaled Composites’ SpaceShipOne, piloted by Michael Melvill, became the first privately-built craft to fly in space this morning!
Scaled Composites looks to be the front-runner for the Ansari X-Prize. The goal of the X-Prize is to develop a reusable spacecraft, and for SpaceShipOne to win it, they’ll have to repeat today’s suborbital flight with a crew of three, then turn around and use the same ship again within two weeks.
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If you want to see what it was like to be there for all three of the historic flights of Burt Rutan’s SpaceShipOne, check out the DVD, “Mojave Magic: A Turtle’s Eye View of SpaceShipOne” at http://www.DesertTurtle.com. These guys did a great job of creating a real “you are there” experience. Even my kids love it!