Friday, April 09, 2004
FAA CLEARS RUTAN FOR SPACE FLIGHT
"The first FAA license for suborbital manned rocket flight has been issued to Scaled Composites of Mojave, California, headed by Burt Rutan. The license approves a sequence of suborbital flights over the course of a year. Yesterday, a carrier aircraft lifted the SpaceShipOne aloft where its rocket engine was ignited for its boldest test flight yet. Officials said the rocket achieved a speed of Mach 2 and reached 105,000 feet. The license is needed by contenders for the X-Prize, a $10 million award to the first team to launch a vehicle capable of carrying three people to a height of 62.5 miles twice in two weeks. Members of the X-Prize Foundation were on hand, apparently to practice filming for upcoming record attempts." ¶ 6:38 AM
