SPACE SHIP ONE
STANDARD DATA: Gross wt. 6,800. Empty wt. 2,500. Engine, hybrid rocket motor, 18,000 lbs. of thrust. Initial rate of climb, 198,000 fpm. Max speed Mach 3.3. Landing distance 3,000′. Burt…
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| STANDARD DATA: Gross wt. 6,800. Empty wt. 2,500. Engine, hybrid rocket motor, 18,000 lbs. of thrust. Initial rate of climb, 198,000 fpm. Max speed Mach 3.3. Landing distance 3,000'. |
Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites built the composite three-seater with a hybrid rocket propulsion system provided by SpaceDev of Poway, California. Hybrid propulsion uses nitrous oxide---also dubbed laughing gas---and HTPB (tire rubber). On October 24, 2004, civilian astronaut Mike Melville piloted SpaceShipOne into history, flying the first private manned spacecraft to exceed an altitude of 328,000. A few days later, fellow astronaut Brian Binnie repeated the flight into suborbital space claiming the ten million dollar Ansari X-Prize.
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