Spaceshipone

For over 30 years space was only obtainable with huge budgets of government agencies. That all changed on Oct 4, 2004 when SpaceShipOne reached 100,000 KM above earth. Inspired by the X-Prize, Scaled Composites started from scratch and proved a private space program could be both possible and economically viable. The project was funded entirely by private donations with the largest coming from Paul Allen of Microsoft. They designed not only a ship to reach space but also a ship to carry it to the upper atmosphere. A year after the first test flight they reached the goal of being the first private space shuttle.

Peter H Diamandis read a copy of the Spirit of St. Louis and realized that the prizes offered in the beginning of manned flights helped to inspire early aviators. He thought that a prize for the first private organization to reach space would help to usher in private space flight. In 1995 he created the X Prize for this purpose. The Ansari X Prize is a ten million dollar prize offered as part of an international competition intended to make space travel for everyone possible. The prize was to be awarded to the first team of entrepreneurs and rocket experts using private funding that builds a reusable spaceship that can carry the weight of three people into space (at least 62.5 miles) and return safely to earth twice within two weeks. Twenty-four teams from all over the world began trying to win the X prize, they were upstaged by the Space Ship One that soared through space on its second trip in one week on October 4th, 2004.

"Today we have made history. Today we go to the stars," said Peter Diamandis on the first flight of SpaceShipOne. Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites began on SpaceShipOne in 1996. They kept their project secret for seven years, until in 2003 when they revealed their finished space craft. They created not only a vehicle to reach space but they created a plane to piggyback it to the upper atmosphere before letting it go. Rutan who was known for unusual plane designs created what no one else has, a space ready vehicle for less then twenty-five million. With the program financed by Microsoft Cofounder Paul Allen who contributed over twenty million in financing, Mojave Aerospace Ventures (MAV) took the Ansari X Prize with its flight to 70 milies from the airport five days after its initial flight on September 29. MAV is a joint venture between Scaled Composites and Paul Allen. Scaled composites' founder Burt Rutan began designing SpaceShipOne in 1999

With the success of SpaceShipOne Allen will recoup 21.5 million in license fees from Virgin Galactic. By the end of the decade, Virgin Galactic a Delaware incorporated business started by Virgin Alantic founder Sir Richard Branson is planning to make it possible for almost anyone to visit the final frontier at an affordable price.

Test pilot Mike Melvill flew the world's first private space flight June 21, piloting Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne into suborbital space after taking off from California's Mojave Airport. The flight was plagued by rolls which did not affect the second flight. The pilot Melvill stopped the roll using his reaction control system thrusters. The ship did not receive any significant structural stresses.

Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne completed its