Forty seven years to the day after Sputnik 1 signaled the dawn of the Space Age, a new kind of space age is underway. SpaceShipOne, with test pilot, now astronaut Brian Binnie at the controls, soared past the 100 km (~62 mi) required altitude for the second time in five days and claimed the $10 million Ansari X-Prize.
Ansari X-Prize, via Space.com
SpaceShipOne rockets into space...
Ansari X-Prize, via Space.com
...and returns safely to Earth (accompanied by chase plane) to claim the X-Prize.
The prize-winning flights are seen as heralding a new age of commercial space travel opening space to many beyond the traditional government astronauts and opening the resources of space to the benefit of present and future generations of people. Read more detail in additional articles from New Scientist and SpaceflightNow.
While the prize will be formally provided to the SpaceShipOne team in early November, designer Burt Rutan will accept an award on the team's behalf this coming Saturday evening at the annual conference of the Space Frontier Foundation on the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA.
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