SpaceShipOne below White Knight taxi's out at 6:45am PDT to Runway 30 at Mojave Airport
The world witnessed the dawn of a new space age today, as investor and philanthropist Paul G. Allen and Scaled Composites launched the first private manned vehicle beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. The successful launch demonstrated that the final frontier is now open to private enterprise. Under the command of test pilot Mike Melvill, SpaceShipOne reached a record breaking altitude of 328,491 feet (approximately 62 miles or 100 km), making Melvill the first civilian to fly a spaceship out of the atmosphere and the first private pilot to earn astronaut wings.
Liftoff at 6:47am PDT.
Paul Allen introduces the SpaceShipOne Team on June 20th.
The three different pilots that are qualified to fly SpaceShipOne are on
the right.
Some of the 600 media that came to see SpaceShipOne and its history making
flight.
A StarShip served as one of the chase aircraft.
An Alpha jet served as the high speed chase with a photographer in the
back seat.
The WhiteKnight climbed to 47,000 ft before it released SpaceShipOne.
Just some of the hundreds of photographers waiting for return of SpaceShipOne.
Drop from White Knight at 7:50 a.m.PDT and the rocket motor ignites for
a 80 second burn!
SpaceShipOne reached a record breaking altitude
of 328,491 feet (approximately 62 miles or 100
km)
SpaceShipOne with a chase glides back over the Mojave Airport,
Touchdown at 8:14 am PDT with the three chase aircraft!
Landing speed is about 90kts.