Scaled Composites, the commercial venture of Burt Rutan and Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen, successfully reached space this morning during a test flight of its SpaceShipOne vehicle. The pilot, Michael Melvill, becomes the first astronaut to earn his wings on a privately-funded flight to the 62.5 mile boundary of space.
Allen spent a mere $20 million on Rutan’s company, which is most certainly chump-change by NASA’s standards (and by Allen’s. Heh). It costs upwards of $500 million to get the shuttle off the ground: each time! I hope this flight sends NASA back to the drawing boards. A little competition in space flight can go a long way towards lowering costs.
No word yet on when Rutan’s team will make a try at the X-Prize. The $10 million prize will be awarded to the first company or individual who sends three people into space and does it again in less than two weeks using the same vehicle.
My money’s on Burt!
They still have to figure out what went wrong with this flight before trying for the X-prize. The vehicle itself had to be operated with backup attitude controls and there was a loud bang (which was apparently a fairing collapsing) that caused some consternation.
Still, there’s something to be said for overengineering things, since the pilot did make it up and back safely.