Celestia Forums

Since I haven't seen any posts on this topic ...

On October 4, 2004, SpaceShipOne, built by Scaled Composites, rocketed into history, becoming the first private manned spacecraft to exceed an altitude of 328,000 feet twice within the span of a 14 day period, thus claiming the ten million dollar Ansari X-Prize. This was the first commercial (non-government) funded, MANNED space flight in history.

Check out the links for all the details.

Hey, thanks Don...

I haven't seen anything on the news or here, but I've been
working six days a week too.

Figures though. Burt Rutan always has a fresh look at old ideas.

Take care, Bob

Yes, he certainly does! He's come up with some VERY innovative designs for everything from private planes to commercial airliners to automobiles. So, I wasn't surprised in the least that his company produced the first non-government-backed spaceship with a mere $20 or $30 million investment!

Maybe one of the current, younger Celestia members will be on a Burt Rutan spaceship to Neptune or something in 15 or 20 years!

Cheers,

Yes, these youngs peoples will be really lucky to go to the stars in the next decades.

So, I'm very happy to know Celestia to do almost the same (and probably more)
This great software enjoys my "old bones".

Cheers,

jdou