SpaceShipOne: Retired and honored by Smithsonian
Mar 16, 2005 16: 24 EST
Perhaps our most relevant symbol of the emerging space-tourism industry is last year’s X Prize winner SpaceShipOne. The innovative birth child of Paul Allen and Burt Rutan is currently having its spot in the annals of history updated. The update? Retirement.
A brief but significant life
SpaceShipOne, the world’s first privately built spacecraft, won the $10 million Ansari X Prize for commercial space flight in October last year. It was sent in to space only three times.
Move over Wright Brothers
The space craft is currently on a mini exhibition tour of the US. It’s being moved from its home in Mojave, CA, and will then stop in Wisconsin for the air show in late July. After that, Allen and Rutan will continue eastward alongside SpaceShipOne to Washington, D.C., its future permanent home.
Most impressive, however, is where the spacecraft will – and deservedly – be put to rest: in The Smithsonian Institution.
There, it will be exhibited alongside “first” aircrafts the 1903 Wright Flyer, Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis of 1927, and Chuck Yeager’s 1947 sound barrier breaking Bell X-1. How’s that for elite company?
Added honors
As well, the SpaceShipOne team just took home the Smithsonian’s 2005 Trophy for Current Acheivement.
Museum Director Jack Dailey added, “"Paul Allen, Burt Rutan and their team are the kind of visionaries who unlock the mysteries of flight and create new ways for us to explore our world and beyond.”
Remembering past achievements
Voyager, another Rutan creation, also rests in the halls of the Smithsonian. It was the first flight-vessel to circle the earth non-stop without refueling, in 1986.
And dreaming of the future
Scaled Composites, Rutan’s firm, is currently building five spacecraft vessels for Virgin Galactic, with commercial service projected to begin by 2008. But a number of fellow visionary firms are hot on Rutan’s trail. The space race is indeed on.
Image of SpaceShipOne courtesy of Scaled Composites.
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