Spaceship One

The Ansari X-Prize challenged anyone to build a privately-owned spaceship — one that would actually fly into space.  The spaceship, in order to win the Ansari X-Prize would have to fly into space under its own power, return to Earth, safely land and then within two weeks do it again.  Pictured here is the scale model replica of Spaceship One located at EAA Air Venture Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.  The actual Spaceship One can be found at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.

     

On October 4, 2004; Spaceship One, designed by Burt Rutan (President, Scaled Composites) and piloted by Brian Binnie, achieved an altitude of 367,442 feet in the record setting event.

 

On Sep 29, 2004 – Pilot Mike Melvill makes the first of two X-Prize competition flights, reaching an altitude of 337,500 feet (63.9 miles).

Oct 4, 2004 – Pilot Brian Binnie makes the second of two X-Prize competition flights, reaching an altitude of 367,442 feet (69.6 miles), winning the $10 million X-Prize. Brian also broke the 42-year old altitude record of 354,200 feet held by the X-15.

For more information see: http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/