While Dennis Tito may be able to buy his way into space for a cool $20 mil, what about the rest of us? It may be awhile before a burger-flipper from Des Moines gets to have a space vacation, but with the announcement of SpaceShipOne at least he’s a little closer. SpaceShipOne, designed by Voyager designer Burt Rutan’s company Scaled, looks to be a likely candidate for first 3-person private spaceship to make a suborbital run. That would make eligible for the X-Prize of $10 million. SpaceShipOne is a two stage spacecraft; the first stage (called White Knight, pictured left at top) uses traditional jet power and aerodynamic lift to get up to altitude, then releasing SpaceShipOne (pictured left hung below WhiteKnight), which then kicks in the rubber-nitrous hybrid rocket to thrust to 62 miles above the Earth. Once in space, SpaceShipOne then rotates its wings outwards in “whirley-gig” mode and returns to Earth. White Knight has been tested, but Rutan’s mum about when the first actual space flight will be. No word on price per flight either, but it’s sure to cost more than $5.25 per pound.
Hardware Beyond the Hype