I'm leaving on an X-Plane...

[khaosworks]

Private manned spacecraft program unveiled
Development could win aircraft designer $10 million X Prize
Saturday, April 19, 2003 Posted: 9:34 AM EDT (1334 GMT)

MOJAVE, California (AP) -- Burt Rutan apparently wasn't satisfied with the development of an airplane that made the first nonstop, unrefueled flight around the world in 1986.

The famed aircraft designer has now developed a rocket plane he says is capable of carrying three people on a suborbital flight to an altitude of 62.5 miles. Rutan set no date for the first attempt, which will come after tests.

"I want to go high because that's where the view is," Rutan said.

He unveiled the rocket plane, dubbed SpaceShipOne, and the White Knight, an exotic jet designed to carry it aloft for a high-altitude air launch, at a hangar at the Mojave Airport on Friday. The private manned spaceflight program has been in secret development for two years, and was built by Rutan's Scaled Composites LLC.

Development costs were not disclosed. Rutan said the project is funded by an anonymous backer.

Success could bring him the $10 million X Prize pledged to the first privately funded manned space flight, but he suggested the money was secondary to the achievement.

"We'll go to space first, but if we succeed, there's $10 million there," he said.

Little else I can say, but - God speed, SpaceShipOne. I'm not the world's biggest fan of unfettered capitalism, but I think that space travel is one area where the mechanics of private enterprise is sorely needed. The X-Plane program has been so stagnant for so long, any progress in this arena is a very exciting thing indeed.