SpaceShipOne

"Space Ship One" redirects here. For the album by Paul Gilbert, seeSpace Ship One (album).

SpaceShipOne
SpaceShipOne after its flight into space, June 2004.
Role	Spaceplane
Manufacturer	Scaled Composites
Designer	Burt Rutan
First flight	20 May 2003(2003-05-20)
Retired	4 October 2004(2004-10-04)
Primary user	Mojave Aerospace Ventures
Number built	1
Developed into	SpaceShipTwo
Career
Preserved at	National Air and Space Museum

SpaceShipOneis an experimentalair-launchedrocket-powered aircraftwithsub-orbital spaceflightcapability at speeds of up to 3,000 ft/s (2,000 mph) / 910 m/s (3,300 km/h) using ahybrid rocketmotor. The design features a unique "feathering"atmospheric reentrysystem where the rear half of the wing and thetwin tailbooms folds 70 degrees upward along a hinge running the length of the wing; this increasesdragwhile retaining stability. SpaceShipOne completed the firstcrewedprivate spaceflightin 2004. That same year, it won the US$10 millionAnsari X Prizeand was immediately retired from active service. Itsmother shipwas named "White Knight".Both craft were developed and flown byMojave Aerospace Ventures,which was a joint venture betweenPaul AllenandScaled Composites,Burt Rutan's aviation company. Allen provided the funding of approximately US$25 million.

Rutan has indicated that ideas about the project began as early as 1994 and the full-time development cycle time to the 2004 accomplishments was about three years.The vehicle first achieved supersonic flight on December 17, 2003, which was also the one-hundredth anniversary of theWright Brothers' historic first powered flight. SpaceShipOne's first official spaceflight, known asflight 15P,was piloted byMike Melvill.A few days before that flight, theMojave Air and Space Portwas the first commercial spaceport licensed in the United States. A few hours after that flight, Melvill became the first licensed U.S.commercial astronaut.The overall project name was "Tier One"which has evolved intoTier 1bwith a goal of taking a successor ship's first passengers into space.

The achievements of SpaceShipOne are more comparable to those of theX-15than to those of orbiting spacecraft like theSpace Shuttle.Accelerating a spacecraft toorbital speedrequires more than 60 times as much energy as accelerating it to Mach 3. It would also require an elaborate heat shield to safely dissipate that energy during re-entry.

SpaceShipOne's official model designation is Scaled Composites Model 316.

Design

Design goal

TheScaled Composites Model 316,known asSpaceShipOne,was aspaceplanedesigned to:

• Carry three humans (one of them apilot) in a sea-level pressurized cabin.
• Be propelled byrocketfrom an altitude of 15 km (9.3 mi) to in excess of 100 km (62 mi).
• Reenter atmosphere and shed kinetic energy in anaerodynamicallystable configuration.
• Glide transonically and subsonically.
• Land horizontally on a standardrunway.

Vehicle description

The fuselage is cigar-shaped, with an overall diameter of about 1.52 m (5 ft 0 in). The main structure is of agraphite/epoxycomposite material.From front to back, it contains the crew cabin, oxidizer tank, fuel casing, and rocket nozzle. The craft has short, wide wings, with a span of 5 m (16 ft) and achordof 3 m (9.8 ft). Large vertical tailbooms are mounted on the end of each wing, with horizontal stabilizers protruding from the tailbooms. It has gear for horizontal landings.

The overall mass of the fully fueled craft is 3,600kg(7,900 lb), of which 2,700 kg (6,000 lb) is taken by the fully loaded rocket motor. Empty mass of the spacecraft is 1,200 kg (2,600 lb), including the 300 kg (660 lb) empty motor casing.

Originally the nozzle protruded from the back, but this turned out to be aerodynamically disadvantageous. In June 2004, between flights14Pand15P,a fairing was added, smoothly extending the fuselage shape to meet the flared end of the nozzle. On flight 15P the new fairing overheated, due to being black on the inside and facing a hot, black nozzle. The fairing softened, and the lower part crumpled inwards during boost. Following that flight the interior of the fairing was painted white, and some small stiffening ribs were added.

The craft has a single unsteerable and unthrottleablehybrid rocketmotor, a cold gasreaction control system,and aerodynamiccontrol surfaces.All can be controlled manually. See the separate section below concerning the rocket engine.

The reaction control system is the only way to control spacecraft attitude outside the atmosphere. It consists of three sets of thrusters: thrusters at each wingtip control roll, at the top and bottom of the nose control pitch, and at the sides of the fuselage control yaw. All thrusters have redundant backups, so comprising twelve thrusters in all.

The aerodynamic control surfaces of SpaceShipOne are designed to operate in two distinct flight regimes, subsonic and supersonic. The supersonic flight regime is of primary interest during the boost phase of a flight, and the subsonic mode when gliding. The craft has separate upper and lower rudders, andelevons.These are controlled usingaviation-style stick and pedals. In supersonic mode the trim tabs are controlled electrically, whereas the subsonic mode uses mechanical cable-and-rod linkage.

The wings of SpaceShipOne can be pneumatically tilted forwards into an aerodynamically stable high-drag"feathered" shape. This removes most of the need to control attitude actively during the early part of reentry: Scaled Composites refer to this as "care-free reentry". One of the early test flights actually performed re-entry inverted, demonstrating the flexibility and inherent stability ofBurt Rutan's "shuttlecock"design. This feathered reentry mode is claimed to be inherently safer than the behavior at similar speeds of theSpace Shuttle.The Shuttle undergoes enormous aerodynamic stresses and must be precisely steered in order to remain in a stable glide. (Although this is an interesting comparison of behavior, it is not an entirely fair comparison of design concepts: the Shuttle starts reentry at much higher speed than SpaceShipOne, and so has some very different requirements. SpaceShipOne is more similar to the X-15 vehicle.)

An early design called for a permanently shuttlecock-like shape, with a ring offeather-like stabilising fins. This would have made the spacecraft incapable of landing independently, requiringmid-air retrieval.This was deemed too risky, and the hybrid final design manages to incorporate the feathering capability into a craft that can land in a conventional manner. The tiltable rear sections of the wings and the tailbooms are collectively referred to as "the feather".

The landing gear consists of two widely separated main wheels and a nose skid. These are deployed using springs, assisted by gravity. Once deployed, they cannot be retracted inflight.

The spacecraft is incapable of independent takeoff from the ground. It requires a launch aircraft to carry it to launch altitude for anair launch.

The parts of the craft that experience the greatest heating, such as the leading edges of the wings, have about 6.5 kg (14 lb) of ablative thermal protection material applied. The main ingredient of this material was accidentally leaked toAir and Space.If it flew with no thermal protection, the spacecraft would survive reentry but would be damaged.

The spacecraft's aerodynamic design has an acknowledged "known deficiency" that makes it susceptible torollexcursions. This has been seen onSpaceShipOne flight 15Pwhere wind shear caused a large roll immediately after ignition, andSpaceShipOne flight 16Pwhere circumstances not yet fully understood caused multiple rapid rolls. This flaw is not considered dangerous, but in both of these flights led to the achievement of a much lower altitude than expected. The details of the flaw are not public.

Cabin

The spacecraft cabin, designed to hold three humans, is shaped as a short cylinder, diameter 1.52 m (5 ft 0 in), with a pointed forward end. Thepilotsits towards the front, and two passengers can be seated behind.

The cabin is pressurized, maintaining asea levelbreathable atmosphere.Oxygenis introduced to the cabin from a bottle, andcarbon dioxideand water vapor are removed by absorbers. The occupants do not wearspacesuitsor breathing masks, because the cabin has been designed to maintain pressure in the face of faults: all windows and seals are doubled.

The cabin has sixteen round double-pane windows, positioned to provide a view of the horizon at all stages of flight. The windows are small compared to the gaps between them, but there are sufficiently many for human occupants to patch together a moderately good view.

The nose section can be removed, and there is also a hatch below the rear windows on the left side. Crew ingress and egress is possible by either route.

Spaceplane navigation

The core of the spacecraftavionicsis theSystem Navigation Unit(SNU). Together with theFlight Director Display(FDD), it comprises theFlight Navigation Unit.The unit was developed jointly byFundamental Technology SystemsandScaled Composites.

The SNU is aGPS-based inertial navigation system, which processes spacecraft sensor data and subsystem health data. It downlinks telemetry data byradioto mission control.

The FDD displays data from the SNU on a colorLCD.It has several distinct display modes for different phases of flight, including the boost phase,coast,reentry, and gliding. The FDD is particularly important to the pilot during the boost and coast phase in order to "turn the corner" and null rates caused by asymmetric thrust. A mix of commercial and bespoke software is used in the FDD.

Hybrid rocket engine

Tier One uses ahybrid rocketenginesupplied bySpaceDev,with solidhydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene(HTPB, orrubber)fueland liquidnitrous oxideoxidizer.It generates 88 kN (20,000 lb_f) of thrust, and can burn for about 87 s (1.45 min).

The physical layout of the engine is novel. The oxidizer tank is a primary structural component, and is the only part of the engine that is structurally connected to the spacecraft: the tank is in fact an integral part of the spacecraft fuselage. The tank is a shortcylinderof diameter approximately 1.52 m (5 ft 0 in), with domed ends, and is the forwardmost part of the engine. The fuel casing is a narrow cylindercantileveredto the tank, pointing backwards. The cantilevered design means that a variety of motor sizes can be accommodated without changing the interface or other components. Thenozzleis a simple extension of the fuel casing; the casing and nozzle are actually a single component, referred to as theCTN(case,throat, andnozzle).Burt Rutanhas applied for apatenton this engine configuration.

There is considerable use ofcomposite materialsin the engine design. The oxidizer tank consists of a composite liner withgraphite/epoxyover-wrap andtitaniuminterface flanges. The CTN uses a high-temperature composite insulator with a graphite/epoxy structure. Incorporating the solid fuel (and hence the main part of the engine) and theablativenozzle into this single bonded component minimizes the possible leak paths.

The oxidizer tank and CTN are bolted together at the main valve bulkhead, which is integrated into the tank. There areO-ringsat the interface to prevent leakage; this is the main potential leak path in the engine. The ignition system, main control valve, and injector are mounted on the valve bulkhead, inside the tank. Slosh baffles are also mounted on this bulkhead. Because the oxidizer is stored under pressure, no pump is required.

The tank liner and the fuel casing are built in-house byScaled Composites.The tank over-wrap is supplied byThiokol.The ablative nozzle is supplied byAAE Aerospace.The oxidizer fill, vent, and dump system is supplied byEnvironmental Aeroscience Corporation.The remaining components—the ignition system, main control valve, injector, tank bulkheads, electronic controls, and solid fuel casting—are supplied bySpaceDev.

The CTN must be replaced between firings. This is the only part of the craft, other than the fuel and oxidizer themselves, that must be replaced.

The solid fuel is cast with four holes. This has the disadvantage that it is possible for chunks of fuel between the holes to become detached during a burn and obstruct the flow of oxidizer and exhaust. Such situations tend to rapidly self-correct.

The oxidizer tank is filled and vented through its forwardbulkhead,on the opposite side of the tank from the fuel and the rest of the engine. This improves safety. It is filled to a pressure of 4.8MPa(700 psi) atroom temperature.

The nozzle has an expansion ratio of 25:1, which is optimized for the upper part of the atmosphere. A different nozzle, with an expansion ratio of 10:1, is used for test firing on the ground. The nozzles are black on the outside, but for aerodynamic testing, red dummy nozzles are used instead.

The rocket is not throttleable. Once lit, the burn can be aborted, but the power output cannot otherwise be controlled. The thrust in fact varies, for two reasons. Firstly, as the pressure in the oxidizer tank decreases, the flow rate reduces, reducing thrust. Secondly, in the late stages of a burn the oxidizer tank contains a mixture of liquid and gaseous oxidizer, and the power output of the engine varies greatly depending on whether it is using liquid or gaseous oxidizer at a particular moment. (The liquid, being far denser, allows a greater burn rate.)

Both the fuel and oxidizer can be stored without special precautions, and they do not burn when brought together without a significant source of heat. This makes the rocket far safer than conventional liquid or solid rockets. The combustion products are water vapour, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, nitrogen, nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide.

The engine was upgraded in September 2004, between flights15Pand16P.The upgrade increased the oxidizer tank size, to provide greater thrust in the early part of the burn, allow a longer burn, and delay the onset of the variable thrust phase at the end of the burn. Prior to the upgrade the engine generated 76 kN (17,000 lb_f) of thrust and could burn for 76 s (1.27 min). After the upgrade it was capable of 88 kN (20,000 lb_f) thrust and an 87 s (1.45 min) burn.

Launch aircraft

This section is about design. For information on flights made by White Knight, seeScaled Composites White Knight.

White Knight One launch aircraft

Tier One's launch aircraft,Scaled Composites Model 318,known asWhite Knight,is designed to take off and land horizontally and attain an altitude of about 15 km (9.3 mi), all while carrying the Tier One spacecraft in aparasite aircraftconfiguration. Its propulsion is by twinturbojets:afterburning J-85-GE-5 engines, rated at 15.6kN(3,500 lb_f) of thrust each.

It has the same cabin,avionics,and trim system as SpaceShipOne. This means it canflight-qualifyalmost all components of SpaceShipOne. It also has a high thrust-to-weight ratio and large speed brakes. These features combined allow it to be used as a high-fidelity moving platformflight simulatorfor SpaceShipOne. White Knight is also equipped with a trim system which (when activated) causes it to have the same glide profile as SpaceShipOne; this allows the pilots to practice for landing SpaceShipOne. The same pilots fly White Knight as fly SpaceShipOne.

The aircraft's distinctive shape features long, thin wings, in a flattened "W" shape, with a wingspan of 25 m (82 ft), dual tailplanes, and four wheels (front and rear at each side). The rear wheels retract, but the front ones, which are steerable, are permanently deployed, with small fairings, referred to as "spats", in front. Another way to look at the overall shape is as two conventional planes, with very thin fuselages, side by side and joined at their wingtips, with the cockpit and engines mounted at the point of joining.

Although White Knight was developed for certain roles in the Tier One program, it is a very capable aircraft in its own right. Scaled Composites describe it as a "high-altitude research aircraft".

Flight profile

SpaceShipOne takes off from the ground, attached to White Knight in aparasiteconfiguration, and under White Knight's power. The combination of SpaceShipOne and White Knight can take off, land, and fly under jet power to high altitude. A captive carryflight is one where the two craft land together without launching SpaceShipOne; this is one of the main abort modes available.

For launch, the combined craft flies to an altitude of around 14 km (8.7 mi), which takes about an hour. SpaceShipOne is then drop-released, and briefly glides unpowered. Rocket ignition may take place immediately, or may be delayed. If the rocket is never lit then SpaceShipOne can glide down to the ground. This is another major abort mode, in addition to being flown deliberately in glide tests.

The rocket engine is ignited while the spacecraft is gliding. Once under power, it is raised into a 65° climb, which is further steepened in the higher part of the trajectory. The maximum acceleration during ascent was recorded at 1.70G.

By the end of the burn the craft is flying upwards at some multiple of the speed of sound, up to about 900 m/s (3,000 ft/s) andMach3.5, and it continues to coast upwards unpowered (i.e.ballistically). If the burn was long enough then it will exceed an altitude of 100 km (62 mi), at which height the atmosphere presents no appreciable resistance, and the craft experiencesfree fallfor a few minutes.

While atapogeethe wings are reconfigured into high-drag mode. As the craft falls back it achieves high speeds comparable to those achieved on the way up; when it subsequently reenters the atmosphere it decelerates violently, up to 5.75G. At some altitude between 10 km (6.2 mi) and 20 km (12 mi) it reconfigures into low-drag glider mode, and glides down to a landing in about 20 minutes.

White Knight takes longer to descend, and typically lands a few minutes after SpaceShipOne.

Specifications

Data fromastronautix

General characteristics

• Crew:One
• Length:27 ft 11 in (8.5m)
• Wingspan:26 ft 11 in (8.2m)
• Diameter:5 ft 0 in (1.52 m)
• Wing area:160 sq ft (15 m²)
• Empty weight:2,646 lb (1,200 kg)
• Gross weight:7,937 lb (3,600 kg)
• Aspect Ratio:1.6
• Powerplant:1 ×SpaceDevN₂O/HTPBhybrid rocket,16,500 lbf (73.5 kN) thrust
• I_sp:250 s (2.5 km/s)
• Burn time:80 seconds

Performance

• Maximum speed:Mach 3.09 (2370 mph, 3815 km/h)
• Range:40 mi (65 km, 35 nmi)
• Service ceiling:367,000 ft (112,000 m)
• Rate of climb:82,000 ft/min (420 m/s)
• Wing loading:49 lb/sq ft (240 kg/m²)
• Thrust/weight:2.08

Development and winning the X Prize

Flight 16P taxi pre launch

Launch of the rockets on SpaceShipOne

A crowd watches as SpaceShipOne makes its second flight

(L to R) Marion Blakely (FAA), Mike Melvill; Richard Branson, Burt Rutan, Brian Binnie, and Paul Allen reflect on a mission accomplished (October 4, 2004)

SpaceShipOne Flight Sept 2004

Mike Melvill SpaceShipOne Government Zero 15P

SpaceShipOne was developed by Mojave Aerospace Ventures (a joint venture betweenPaul AllenandScaled Composites,Burt Rutan's aviation company, in theirTier Oneprogram), without government funding. On June 21, 2004, it made the first privately funded human spaceflight. On October 4, it won the US$10 millionAnsari X Prize,by reaching 100 kilometers in altitude twice in a two-week period with the equivalent of three people on board and with no more than ten percent of the non-fuel weight of the spacecraft replaced between flights. Development costs were estimated to beUS$25 million,funded completely byPaul Allen.

During its test program, SpaceShipOne set a number of important "firsts", including first privately funded aircraft to exceed Mach 2 and Mach 3, first privately funded crewed spacecraft to exceed100km altitude,and first privately funded reusable crewed spacecraft.

SpaceShipOne wasregisteredwith theFAAasN328KF.Nis the prefix for US-registered aircraft;328KFwas chosen by Scaled Composites to stand for 328kilofeet(about100 kilometers), the officially designatededge of space.The original choice of registry number, N100KM, was already taken. N328KF is registered as aglider,reflecting the fact that most of its independent flight is unpowered.

SpaceShipOne's first flight,01C,was an uncrewed captiveflight teston May 20, 2003. Glide tests followed, starting withflight 03Gon August 7, 2003. Its first powered flight,flight 11P,was made on December 17, 2003, the 100th anniversary of thefirst powered flight.

On April 1, 2004, Scaled Composites received the first license forsuborbitalrocket flights to be issued by theUS Office of Commercial Space Transportation.This license permitted the company to conduct powered test flights over the course of one year. On June 17, 2004, under the leadership of airport CEOStuart O. Witt,Mojave Airport reclassified itself as theMojave Air and Space Port.

Flight 15Pon June 21, 2004, was SpaceShipOne's firstspaceflight,and the first privately funded human spaceflight. There were a few control problems,but these were resolved prior to the Ansari X PRIZE flights that followed, withflight 17Pto 112 km on October 4, 2004,winning the prize.

The SpaceShipOne Team was awarded the Space Achievement Awardby theSpace Foundationin 2005.

Flights

On 17 December 2003—on the 100th anniversary of theWright brothersfirst powered flight of anaircraft—SpaceShipOne,piloted byBrian BinnieonFlight 11P,made its firstrocket-poweredflight and became the first privately built craft to achieve supersonic flight.

SpaceShipOne landing

All of the flights of SpaceShipOne were from theMojave Airport Civilian Flight Test Center.Flights were numbered, starting with flight 01 on May 20, 2003. One or two letters are appended to the number to indicate the type of mission. An appendedCindicates that the flight was a captive carry,Gindicates an unpowered glide, andPindicates a powered flight. If the actual flight differs in category from the intended flight, two letters are appended: the first indicating the intended mission and the second the mission actually performed.

SpaceShipOne flights

Flight	Date	Top speed	Altitude	Duration	Pilot
01C	May 20, 2003		14.63 km	1 h 48 min	uncrewed
02C	July 29, 2003		14 km	2 h 06 min	Mike Melvill
03G	August 7, 2003	278 km/h	14.33 km	19 min 00 s	Mike Melvill
04GC	August 27, 2003	370 km/h	14 km	1 h 06 min	Mike Melvill
05G	August 27, 2003	370 km/h	14.69 km	10 min 30 s	Mike Melvill
06G	September 23, 2003	213 km/h	14.26 km	12 min 15 s	Mike Melvill
07G	October 17, 2003	241 km/h	14.08 km	17 min 49 s	Mike Melvill
08G	November 14, 2003	213 km/h	14.42 km	19 min 55 s	Peter Siebold
09G	November 19, 2003	213 km/h	14.72 km	12 min 25 s	Mike Melvill
10G	December 4, 2003	213 km/h	14.75 km	13 min 14 s	Brian Binnie
11P	December 17, 2003	Mach1.2	20.67 km	18 min 10 s	Brian Binnie
12G	March 11, 2004	232 km/h	14.78 km	18 min 30 s	Peter Siebold
13P	April 8, 2004	Mach 1.6	32.00 km	16 min 27 s	Peter Siebold
14P	May 13, 2004	Mach 2.5	64.43 km	20 min 44 s	Mike Melvill
15P	June 21, 2004	Mach 2.9	100.124 km	24 min 05 s	Mike Melvill
16P	September 29, 2004	Mach 2.92	102.93 km	24 min 11 s	Mike Melvill
17P	October 4, 2004	Mach 3.09	112.014 km	23 min 56 s	Brian Binnie

SpaceShipOne ranks among the world's firstspaceplanesin thefirst 50 yearsofhuman spaceflight,with theNorth American X-15,Space Shuttle,Buran,andBoeing X-37.SpaceShipOne is the secondspaceplaneto havelaunchedfrom amother ship,preceded only by theNorth American X-15.

The flights were accompanied by twochase planes—anExtra 300owned and flown byChuck Coleman,and aBeechcraft Starship.

Astronauts

The SpaceShipOne pilots came from a variety ofaerospacebackgrounds.Mike Melvillis atest pilot,Brian Binnieis a former Navy pilot, andPeter Sieboldis an engineer at Scaled Composites. They qualified to fly SpaceShipOne by training on theTier One flight simulatorand in White Knight and other Scaled Composites aircraft.

Retirement

SpaceShipOne now hangs in theNational Air and Space Museumin Washington, D.C.

SpaceShipOne's spaceflights were watched by large crowds at Mojave Spaceport. A fourth suborbital flight, Flight 18P, was originally scheduled for October 13, 2004. However, Burt Rutan decided not to risk damage to the historic craft, and cancelled it and all future flights.

On July 25, 2005, SpaceShipOne was taken to theOshkosh AirshowinOshkosh,Wisconsin.After the airshow, Mike Melvill and crew flew theWhite Knight,carrying SpaceShipOne, to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, where Melvill spoke to a group of about 300 military and civilian personnel. Later in the evening, Melvill gave a presentation at the Dayton Engineers Club, entitled "Some Experiments in Space Flight", in honor ofWilbur Wright's now-famous presentation to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1901 entitled "Some Experiments in Flight." The White Knight then transported SpaceShipOne to theSmithsonian Institution'sNational Air and Space Museumto be put on display. It was unveiled on Wednesday October 5, 2005 in the Milestones of Flight gallery and is now on display to the public in the main atrium with theSpirit of St. Louis,theBell X-1,and theApollo 11command moduleColumbia.

CommanderBrian Binniedonated the flight suit and checklist used during his Ansari X Prize-winning flight to an auction benefitting Seattle'sMuseum of Flight.Entertainer and fundraising auctioneer Fred Northup Jr. purchased the flight suit and checklist book, and the flight suit is on display at the museum's Charles Simonyi Space Gallery.

A piece of SpaceShipOne'scarbon fibermaterial was launched aboard theNew Horizonsmission toPlutoin 2006.

Replicas

Normal configuration

Feathered configuration

EAA replica in both feathered and normal configuration.

A year after its appearance in the Oshkosh Airventure airshow, theExperimental Aircraft Associationfeatured a full-scale replica of the spacecraft in a wing of itsmuseumwhich housed other creations of Burt Rutan. Using the same fiberglass molds as the original, it was so exact in its replication—despite not having any doors or interior—that it was dubbed "Serial 2 Scaled" byScaled Composites.Each detail in its appearance was matched, down to the N328KF registration number on its fuselage. It is so precise that, during a 7-minute video presentation held every hour on the half hour in the museum, it can display the two different modes of its 'feathering' ability, albeit through the aid of pulleys and wires (there is no machinery in the replica).

Other full-scale replicas are at the William Thomas Terminal atMeadows Field AirportinBakersfieldthe Mojave Spaceport's Legacy Park alongside the originalRoton Atmospheric Test Vehicle,theFlying Heritage CollectionatPaine FieldinEverett,andGoogle's Mountain View Campus.

SpaceShipOne was also made into amodel rocketin 2004.

Subsequent spacecraft

With the success of Tier One meeting its project goals, a successor project started in 2004 wasTier 1b.The successor ships are namedSpaceShipTwoandWhite Knight Two.The name of the joint venture betweenVirgin Groupand Scaled Composites is calledThe Spaceship Company,with a goal of carrying passengers under the nameVirgin Galactic,a spaceliner with an initial target of a commercial fleet of five spacecraft.

In August 2005, Virgin Galactic stated that if the upcoming suborbital service with SpaceShipTwo would be successful, the follow-up would be known asSpaceShipThree.

On 13 December 2018,VSSUnityachieved the SpaceShipTwo project's first suborbital space flight,VSS Unity VP-03,with two pilots, reaching an altitude of 82.7 kilometres (51.4 mi), and officially enteringouter spaceby US standards.

Gallery

• 
  Hybrid rocketengine detail of SpaceShipOne (more information).
• 
  SpaceShipOne takes off
• 
  SpaceShipOne landing after its June 21, 2004 space flight (Flight 15P)
• 
  SpaceShipOne in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C., with theSpirit of Saint LouisandBell X-1Glamorous Glennis
• 
• 
  SpaceShipOne taking off
• 
  Exhausted SS1 rocket engine in the Scaled Composites building
• 
  Timeline of sub-orbital flights

See also

• 2004 in spaceflight
• Black Sky: The Race For Space,2005 documentary about SpaceShipOne
• X-15
• SpaceShipTwo
• FAST20XXALPHA vehicle based on SpaceShipOne

References

• SpaceShipOne: An Illustrated HistorybyDan Linehan,foreword byArthur C. Clarke(Zenith Press, 2008).ISBN978-0-7603-3188-0.

External links

• Footage of SpaceShipOne landing and press conference with pilot Mike Melvill