Private U.S. Rocket Plane Soars Into Space
Mon Jun 21, 4:57 PM ET
By Reed Stevenson
MOJAVE, Calif. (Reuters) - The privately funded rocket plane SpaceShipOne flew to outer space and into history books on Monday as the world's first commercial manned space flight.
The white rocket plane was released from a larger plane called the White Knight and ignited its rocket engine to enter space and reach an altitude of 328,491 feet, or 62.2 miles above the earth.
Against the backdrop of a clear blue sky, it landed safely back at a runway in the Mojave Desert in California, about 100 miles north of Los Angeles. Thousands gathered for the hourlong journey.
"The sky was jet black above, and it got very blue above the horizon," said pilot Michael Melvill, 63, who earned his wings as an astronaut and was greeted by Buzz Aldrin, one of the first men to walk on the moon.
"The earth is so beautiful," added Melvill in describing the planet's vast curvature and the Southern California coast he saw during a brief three and half minutes just beyond the atmosphere.
"The flight today opens a new chapter in history, making space within the reach of ordinary citizens," declared Patti Grace Smith, FAA (news - web sites) associate administrator for commercial space transportation.
In Washington, Michael Lembeck of NASA (news - web sites)'s office of exploration systems said the agency might offer up to $30 million in prizes to encourage commercial missions to orbit the Earth or land on the moon.
Lembeck told Reuters there was even discussion of offering "a couple hundred million dollars for the first private orbital flight."
SpaceShipOne with its striking nose -- a pointed cone covered with small portholes -- was designed by legendary aerospace designer Burt Rutan and built with more than $20 million in funding by billionaire Paul Allen, who co-founded Microsoft Corp.
Rutan and Allen said the success of the project proved commercial space flight and space tourism would soon become a reality.
"We've clearly shown it can be done," said Allen, who attended the launch of the first U.S. space shuttle in 1981.
Future flights in spacecraft based on SpaceShipOne's design will be able to take at least six passengers to 93 miles above the earth, said Rutan, who designed the Voyager airplane that was flown nonstop around the world in 1986.
GUINNESS CITES PROJECT
Melvill's mission was the first privately piloted flight in the space age that began when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbited the earth in 1961. It also marked the first time a non-government spacecraft reached the altitude considered to be the boundary between earth's atmosphere and outer space.
The Federal Aviation Administration awarded Melvill with its first civilian astronaut wings, and Guinness World records cited the team for achieving the first commercial manned space flight.
After burning its rocket for about 80 seconds, SpaceShipOne sped up to more than three times the speed of sound and then coasted to its peak altitude, making Melvill weightless.
He said he released a bag of M&Ms chocolates, which "just spun around like little sparkling things."
There were a few glitches, however, that may delay Allen and Rutan's next goal, an attempt to win the $10 million Ansari X Prize, offered by a group of private donors to the first team that sends three people, or an equivalent weight, into space and repeats the trip within two weeks.
SpaceShipOne's trim controls got stuck as it made its rocket boost, causing it to go about 22 miles off course and not reach its full expected altitude of 68 miles.
In addition, a piece of cowling, or protective cover near the end of the rocket nozzle, buckled, Rutan said.
