Space Plane

Speshal

World Champion
Valued Member
Indeed. It's a collaboration with maverick aerospace engineer Burt Rutan. In 2004, the won they won the $10m Ansari X Prize for the first independent and privately funded, built and flown "proof o concept" of a re-usable spacecraft. Rutan's SpaceShipOne was sponsored by Branson and performed the required launch, re-entry an dlanding cycle twice within 14 days to claim the prize.

Rutan has retired but his company are, I think, still under contract to build a craft, codenamed White Knight Two, for Branson's Virgin Atlantic, intended to be carrier for space tourism.
 
Back
Top Bottom