YOU need the right stuff to reach for the stars. And that includes a permit. Now one plucky group of privateers has both.
The US Federal Aviation Administration has granted the California company Scaled Composites the first ever licence for a privately financed suborbital rocket designed to carry passengers. That makes Scaled Composites the front runner in the race to claim the $10 million X Prize, which will go to the first individual or private company to build a reusable spacecraft capable of carrying three people to an altitude of 100 kilometres and back. They then have to repeat the feat within two weeks.
In December, the firm鈥檚 manned rocket SpaceShipOne broke the sound barrier after being launched by a mother plane at an altitude of 14.5 kilometres (47,500 feet). The rocket鈥檚 engines propelled it to nearly 21 kilometres and a speed of Mach 1.2, before it glided down to a landing at the company鈥檚 airport in Mojave.
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FAA officials granted the licence after ensuring that SpaceShipOne met safety and environmental standards. The agency also required Scaled Composites to take out adequate insurance to cover any damage to property on the ground.
Henry Price of the FAA says that the agency has received two other similar applications for licences for reusable launch vehicles, and that one of them is an X Prize contender.