It was a one-of-a-kind moment for a throng of well-wishers, including this reporter, all in nose-up, sky-squinting position at California’s Mojave Airport on June 21, 2004.Let loose from its White Knight mothership, the rocket engine propelling the experimental suborbital motor for 15 seconds, and ascending to just above 62 miles (100 kilometers) over Earth. It therefore cleared the Kármán line, a widely recognized definition of the boundary of outer space.”I figured if we had bad flying qualities we are accelerating so fast,” Rutan said, “you are going to quickly poke right through it.”When the rocket engine shut off, SpaceShipOne slipped into low speed and the feather system was engaged. The vehicle was successfully maneuvered down to tarmac heaven.Above the fold”I did recognize that it was historic, to achieve a non-government manned spaceflight,” Rutan said. The flight achievement got “above the fold” newspaper attention around the world.”It was the number two story for all of 2004. If they hadn’t pulled Saddam Hussein out of his spider hole that year,” Rutan said, “this would have been the number one story!”Later that year, SpaceShipOne made two back-to-back suborbital flights well above 100 kilometers in altitude, solo piloted first by Melvill and then Brian Binnie, to snag the $10 million Ansari X Prize purse.For Rutan, the voyage of SpaceShipOne that day was a huge milestone. “It should get a party every 10 years. And it certainly should get a …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnIt was a one-of-a-kind moment for a throng of well-wishers, including this reporter, all in nose-up, sky-squinting position at California’s Mojave Airport on June 21, 2004.Let loose from its White Knight mothership, the rocket engine propelling the experimental suborbital motor for 15 seconds, and ascending to just above 62 miles (100 kilometers) over Earth. It therefore cleared the Kármán line, a widely recognized definition of the boundary of outer space.”I figured if we had bad flying qualities we are accelerating so fast,” Rutan said, “you are going to quickly poke right through it.”When the rocket engine shut off, SpaceShipOne slipped into low speed and the feather system was engaged. The vehicle was successfully maneuvered down to tarmac heaven.Above the fold”I did recognize that it was historic, to achieve a non-government manned spaceflight,” Rutan said. The flight achievement got “above the fold” newspaper attention around the world.”It was the number two story for all of 2004. If they hadn’t pulled Saddam Hussein out of his spider hole that year,” Rutan said, “this would have been the number one story!”Later that year, SpaceShipOne made two back-to-back suborbital flights well above 100 kilometers in altitude, solo piloted first by Melvill and then Brian Binnie, to snag the $10 million Ansari X Prize purse.For Rutan, the voyage of SpaceShipOne that day was a huge milestone. “It should get a party every 10 years. And it certainly should get a …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
