Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne, piloted by former Navy test pilot
Brian Binnie, reached an altitude of 368,000 feet Monday, meeting
the criteria for the $10 million Ansari X-Prize.
Via a number of sources, ANN has learned that the next flight of
SpaceShipOne is likely to be flown by Scaled's Brian Binnie.
Mike Melvill has reportedly explained that he will either be flying
in White Knight or the Extra 300 close-chase plane.
This week has seen the changing of the guard among rocket plane
pilots. Mike Melvill flew SpaceShipOne on the first of two
qualifying flights for the $10 million Ansari X-Prize -- and
Brigadier General "Pete" Everest has passed away. Everest was a
legend; a fighter ace, a famous test pilot, and, on at least two
occasions, "The Fastest Man Alive."
Or, What I'm Doing With The Spacecraft Since I Dug It Out Of
The Ground
The Genesis team is preparing to ship its samples of the Sun
from the mission's temporary cleanroom at the U.S. Army Proving
Ground, Dugway, Utah, to NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston.
NASA’s three Space Shuttle orbiters -- Discovery, Atlantis
and Endeavour – along with the Shuttle launch pads and all of
the critical flight hardware for the orbiters and the International
Space Station, sustained no damage during Hurricane Jeanne, which
moved through Kennedy Space Center last weekend.
NASA Chooses ILS Atlas V Launch Vehicle to Launch Solar
Dynamics Observatory
A mission to study solar influences on space weather will ride
into orbit on an Atlas V launch vehicle, under a contract announced
today between NASA and International Launch Services (ILS).
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