Private spacecraft leaves Earth's Atmosphere
This is very cool news... From the
U.K. Independent:
bq. A piloted rocket plane has blasted through the earth's atmosphere becoming the first privately funded vehicle to reach the edge of space.
bq. Manned by Mike Melvill, a 62-year-old test pilot, the teardrop-shaped rocket made a 55 second climb to 211,400ft (40 miles) before free-falling to a near perfect landing at Mojave airport, about 80 miles north of Los Angeles in California.
bq. SpaceShipOne, the brainchild of Burt Rutan, the American designer, was lofted into launch position by its a spider-like mother plane, White Night, inside a smaller winged rocket attached to its belly. It then fell for a few seconds before the engines were ignited, lurching it forward. The craft made the longest such ascent by a private manned rocket - before shutting off the engine. It then continued upward for a few seconds, propelled by its own momentum.
Burt's website is here:
Scaled Composites
Posted by DaveH at May 17, 2004 9:39 AM