ZaZu
10-05-2004, 06:15 AM
MOJAVE, Calif. - A stout, star-spangled rocket plane broke through the Earth's atmosphere to the edge of space Monday for the second time in five days, capturing a $10 million prize aimed at opening the final frontier to tourists.
The privately built SpaceShipOne took off underneath the belly of a mother plane that carried it about nine miles over the Mojave Desert. From there, SpaceShipOne fired its engine and streaked skyward at about three times the speed of sound on a half-hour flight that took it more than 62 miles high, generally considered the point where space begins.
SpaceShipOne — with test pilot Brian Binnie at the controls — then glided safely back to Earth.
The reward for the achievement is the $10 million Ansari X Prize, created in 1996 to kick-start the development of privately built rocket ships that could make spaceflight available to the public.
To win the prize, a spacecraft capable of carrying three people had to make two flights to an altitude just over 62 miles within two weeks. The goal was to show that the rocket could go back and forth like a spaceliner.
Last week, Richard Branson, the British airline mogul and adventurer, announced that beginning in 2007, he will begin offering paying customers flights into space. Branson said he had a deal, worth up to $25 million over 15 years, to license the technology that led to SpaceShipOne. Fares will start at more than $200,000.
Source (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=5&u=/ap/20041005/ap_on_sc/private_spaceship)
The privately built SpaceShipOne took off underneath the belly of a mother plane that carried it about nine miles over the Mojave Desert. From there, SpaceShipOne fired its engine and streaked skyward at about three times the speed of sound on a half-hour flight that took it more than 62 miles high, generally considered the point where space begins.
SpaceShipOne — with test pilot Brian Binnie at the controls — then glided safely back to Earth.
The reward for the achievement is the $10 million Ansari X Prize, created in 1996 to kick-start the development of privately built rocket ships that could make spaceflight available to the public.
To win the prize, a spacecraft capable of carrying three people had to make two flights to an altitude just over 62 miles within two weeks. The goal was to show that the rocket could go back and forth like a spaceliner.
Last week, Richard Branson, the British airline mogul and adventurer, announced that beginning in 2007, he will begin offering paying customers flights into space. Branson said he had a deal, worth up to $25 million over 15 years, to license the technology that led to SpaceShipOne. Fares will start at more than $200,000.
Source (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=5&u=/ap/20041005/ap_on_sc/private_spaceship)