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.
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.
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.
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.
I defy any government to be able to do the same thing in the same time with the same money. I don't think it can be done. however, you watch for the FAA or some other agency to start tacking rules onto civillian extra-terrestrial travel. I wonder how much salvage could be gotten by pulling down old satellites? Branson funding the travel isn't surprising. He's an adventurous sort anyways.
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