Government Licenses First Private Rocket

We obviously all heard of the $10 million X prize Contest. Well it looks like there is a frontrunner. I have seen the photo of this manned rocket here on ATS before, but I figured this deserved a new topic because the FAA today announced that it gave a one-year license for a manned suborbital rocket to Scaled Composites of Mojave, Calif., a company founded by aviation maverick Burt Rutan. His goal is public space travel within 10 years.



Here is the rest of the story

I found it interesting that the Burt Rutan was the designer of the Voyager, the plane in 1986 that made the first nonstop, unrefueled flight around the world.

The Scaled Composites craft consists of a rocket plane, dubbed SpaceShipOne, and the White Knight, an exotic jet designed to carry it aloft for a high-altitude launch. SpaceShipOne, made of graphite and epoxy, has short wings and twin vertical tails. It reached 12.9 miles altitude in a trial flight; the license will allow the spacecraft to reach the edge of space, about 60 miles up.

He wasn't allowed to go into space without getting a liscense from the government?!

I guess the FAA considers the edge of space 60 miles up. The article said that in order to beyond that, they would have to get a license issued.

And today they did there 2nd powered flight. They got space ship one up to 105,000 feet with a 40 second burn, reaching a speed of mach 2.

www.space.com...

this was already covered here:
www.abovetopsecret.com...