# Prepare for public space flight...



## Brian G Turner (Jun 19, 2004)

SpaceShipOne, the first private manned spacecraft, is undergoing final preparations before its historic flight to the edge of space on Monday. The craft, built by aviation pioneer Burt Rutan, will be launched into the sky by its carrier, White Knight, then rocket upwards to 100km (62 miles). 

   No private craft has ever been so high. In May, it reached 64km (40 miles) in a test flight, doubling its last best. 

   The attempt over California's Mojave Desert is due to launch at 1330 GMT. 

 Mr Rutan and his team from his company, Scaled Composites, hope the flight will take them closer to winning the Ansari X-prize of $10m (£5.7m) awarded to the first non-government, manned flight into space.


  More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3811881.stm


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## littlemissattitude (Jun 20, 2004)

Just a note of local color in relation to this: Burt Rutan grew up in Dinuba, CA, one of the small local towns near where I live. Just thought I'd share. 

I think this whole idea to privatize space flight is a step in the right direction. As long as it's all in the hands of government I don't believe any great leaps forward in space exploration will be made. Heck, we only went to the moon in the first place because we were so afraid that the Soviets would pull another Sputnik and get there first. It was just another battle in the Cold War; political, not scientific or exploratory in any significant way.


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