ABSTRACTTitle:Scaled Composites is an aerospace innovation and development company located in the Mojave desert of California. Headed by Burt Rutan, Scaled Composites set out to become the first privatized company to obtain manned sub-orbital flight and to win the Ansari X Prize of $10 Million. To successfully win the X Prize, Scaled Composites developed two new and innovative aircraft known as White Knight and SpaceShipOne. White Knight, the carrier airplane, was to take SpaceShipOne to altitude where the spacecraft would then fire its rocket and ascend to space. On October 4, 2004, SpaceShipOne successfully completed its second flight in two weeks to win the X Prize. Now, a joint effort between Burt Rutan and Sir Richard Branson known as Virgin Galactic is poised to be the first privatized commercial space travel company.
SPACESHIPONE POISED TO BE FIRST PRIVATE SPACECRAFTStatement of the Problem: Is Privatized Space Flight Possible?The desire to explore space is simply part of the human nature to discover and to explore that which is around him.
The first, titled the Ansari X Prize, was presente...
SpaceShipOne hanging under White Knight
Rocket engine of Scaled Composites SpaceShipOneThe desire to create, to explore, to conquer, and to achieve greater adventures than those that went before is a basic driving force of mankind. With that certain drive and desire, Dr. Peter H. Diamandis fathered the X Prize Foundation. Created in 1995, the X Prize Foundation was the combined efforts of Dr. Diamandis and Byron K. Lichtenberg, Colette M. Bevis, and Gregg E. Maryniak (X Prize Foundation, 2008). Tom Rogers and John McLucas provided funding for the foundation. Having dreamed all his life of space travel, Dr. Diamandis believed that by challenging focused and talented teams of engineers, their desire to achieve and win could change the world. It was his to go to space that drove his vision of a prize offered to the entity or individual that was...