SpaceShipOne

Revolutionizing Space Tourism

Outline
• What is SpaceShipOne?
• History
• How does SpaceShipOne work?
• Beyond SpaceShipOne
ƒ The First Non-Government Manned
Spacecraft
ƒ Three-person vehicle for suborbital
spaceflight
ƒ Designed by Scaled Composites, a company
founded by aerospace engineer Burt Rutan
ƒ Funded by Paul Allen, co-founder of
Microsoft
ƒ 1996 - Concept design work and some
preliminary development
ƒ April 2001 - Full development program began
in secrecy
ƒ April 1, 2004 - Scaled Composites received
the first license for sub-orbital rocket flights
ƒ June 21, 2004 - First spaceflight
ƒ October 4, 2004 - Won the $10 million Ansari
X PRIZE
White Knight carries SpaceShipOne to about 15,000 meters above the Earth.
Accelerate almost vertically at 3 g’s.
ƒ More than 100 km above the Earth.
ƒ Speed: 3000 km/h
ƒ Weightlessness
ƒ The ship's empennage converts
(using pneumatic-actuated
'feather') to a stable, high-drag
shape
ƒ 5 or 6 g's of deceleration
ƒ Parabolic trajectory
Turns into a glider at about 16,000 metres above the Earth.
Touchdown at 145 km/h.
SpaceShipOne now hangs
at the Smithsonian
Institution, Washington
D.C.
ƒ Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group
of companies and Burt Rutan are teaming up
to create the world's first civilian passenger
spaceliner
ƒ Virgin Galactic, the company that will offer
the flights, will launch them from spaceports
in the New Mexico desert
ƒ May begin commercial flights in 2009
ƒ Twice the size of SpaceShipOne
ƒ Can carry six paying customers and two pilots
© 2008 WJ. Revised: 2 Dec 2008.