A FLIGHT on 13 May by Burt Rutan鈥檚 SpaceShipOne in Mojave, California, broke several records for an independently funded space vehicle: altitude (64,000 metres), speed (Mach 2.5) and rocket engine firing time (55 seconds). And that was just the start.
Rutan鈥檚 company, Scaled Composites, is odds-on favourite to win the renamed Ansari X prize of $10 million, perhaps within the next couple of months or so. The company is poised to announce the date of its attempt to place the first private craft into space 鈥� defined as an altitude of 100 kilometres. That feat would also make its pilot the world鈥檚 first commercial astronaut. To reach space, the craft鈥檚 rocket engine will need to fire only about 10 seconds longer than in the last flight.
To qualify for the X prize, the craft will need to make the same flight carrying the weight of three people, and then do it again within two weeks. Even if, as expected, that prize is won in the next few months (and at least three other teams are poised and ready if Rutan falters), that won鈥檛 be the end of the saga. The foundation financing the X prize will continue to foster commercial space transportation by sponsoring an annual X prize cup, at a new commercial spaceport to be built in New Mexico. Prizes will go to craft that help push back the boundaries of commercial rocket technology.
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