Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking. Login or Take a Tour!
Ten years and two days ago, thousands of people traveled to a small airport in the high desert of southern California, expecting to witness history and the beginning of a new era in spaceflight. They certainly saw the former. On the morning of June 21, 2004, the White Knight airplane took off from Mojave Airport, with SpaceShipOne attached to the underside of its fuselage. An hour later, at an altitude of 14,300 meters, White Knight released SpaceShipOne. The small spaceplane, with test pilot Mike Melvill at the controls, fired its hybrid rocket motor, soaring to an altitude of just over 100 kilometers before gliding back to a landing in Mojave. SpaceShipOne became the first privately-developed and -funded crewed vehicle to fly in space.