Rocket Wins $10M Prize for Trip to Space

Rocket Wins $10M Prize for Trip to Space

By JOHN ANTCZAK, Associated Press Writer

MOJAVE, Calif. - A stubby rocket plane powered its rockets and appeared to blast through the Earth's atmosphere for a second time in two weeks Monday to capture a $10 million prize meant to encourage space tourism.

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Slideshow Slideshow: X Prize Space Launch Competition



SpaceShipOne, the rocket plane funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen, appeared to top its required altitude within minutes of firing its rockets, said Peter Diamandis, who founded the X Prize eight years ago.

The plane took off from a desert runway early Monday, slung to the belly of a carrier plane with a test pilot at the wheel. It was released at about 46,000 feet and fired its rockets to continue to an altitude of just over 62 miles — generally considered to be the point where the Earth's atmosphere ends and space begins.

Radar confirmation of the rocket's peak altitude was expected soon after landing, but a crowd of thousands of enthusiasts on the ground began celebrating as soon as SpaceShipOne appeared to exceed the minimum requirement.

"This is the true frontier of transportation," said Marion C. Blakey, head of the Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites), who stood near the runway to watch the space flight.

"It feels a little bit like Kitty Hawk must have," Blakey added.

If the altitude of 368,000 feet is confirmed, the backers will claim the Ansari X Prize, a $10 million award that goes to the first privately built, manned rocket ship to fly in space twice in a span of two weeks.

The choice of Brian Binnie as Monday's pilot was kept secret until hours before the scheduled takeoff. Last week, SpaceShipOne rolled dozens of times with Michael Melvill at the wheel as it hurtled toward space at three times the speed of sound.

Melvill also flew the first flight by a private plane into space on June 21, and he was awarded the nation's first commercial astronaut wings by the FAA (news - web sites).

After a safety analysis, SpaceShipOne designer Burt Rutan posted preliminary information about last week's flight on his Web site this weekend to address what he called the "incorrect rumors" that have circulated.

The first roll occurred at a high speed, about Mach 2.7, but aerodynamic loads on the spacecraft were low and decreasing rapidly "so the ship never saw any significant structural stresses," he said.

Diamandis came up with the X Prize, hoping it would have the same effect on space travel as the Orteig Prize had on air travel. Charles Lindbergh claimed that $25,000 prize in 1927 after making his solo trans-Atlantic flight.

Major funding came from the Ansari family of Dallas. More than two dozen teams around the world are trying to win the prize, but only SpaceShipOne has reached space.

Last week, Richard Branson, the British airline mogul and adventurer, announced that beginning in 2007, he will begin offering paying customers flights into space aboard rockets like the SpaceShipOne. He plans to call the service Virgin Galactic.