SpaceShipOne

SpaceShipOne completed the first human-crewed private spaceflight in 2004 and won the US$10 million Ansari X Prize. Almost one-hundredth years after the Wright Brothers’ historic first powered flight.

As part of this project, the Mojave Air and Space Port was the first commercial spaceport licensed in the United States. And the first pilot of SpaceShipOne became the first licensed U.S. commercial astronaut.

SpaceShipOne was an experimental air-launched rocket-powered aircraft with suborbital flight speeds of up to 900 m/s (3,000 ft/s), using a hybrid rocket motor.

The design features a unique “feathering” atmospheric reentry system where the rear half of the wing and the twin tail booms folded upward along a hinge running the length of the wing; this increased drag while providing stability.

The rear half of the wing and the twin tail booms folded-up to provide a “feathering” atmospheric reentry system

SpaceShipOne

• Title:                    SpaceShipOne
• Crew:                   One pilot
• Length:                28 ft (8.53 m)
• Wingspan:          16 ft 5 in (8.05 m)
• Loaded weight:  7,920 lb (3,600 kg)
• Burn time:           80 seconds
• Powerplant:        1 × N2O/HTPB SpaceDev Hybrid rocket, 7,500 kgf (74 kN)
• Max speed:          Mach 3.09 (2,170 mph, 3,518 km/h)
• Range:                  35 nm (40 mi, 65 km)
• Museum:             National Air and Space Museum

SpaceShip One X-Prize Flight #1 Launch

Tour of the National Air and Space Museum

• The Spirit of St. Louis
• Apollo 11 Command Module
• The Wright Flyer
• Bell X-1 Glamorous Glennis
• SpaceShipOne
• Apollo Lunar Module
• Skylab 4 Apollo Command Module
• Airbus A320 Simulated Cockpit

A Tour of Air and Space Museums

• National Air and Space Museum
• Intrepid, Sea, Air & Space Museum
• Aviation Museum Hannover-Laatzen
• Royal Air Force Museum London
• Australian Aviation Heritage Centre

SpaceshipOne

Science and Technology Museums

• Science Museum, London
• Queensland Museum & Science Centre
• National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo
• ArtScience Museum, Singapore
• Shanghai Science and Technology Museum
• Great Lakes Science Center, Cleveland
• Intrepid, Sea, Air & Space Museum, New York
• National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC
• National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo
• Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago)
• Science and Technology Museums
• Royal Observatory, Greenwich

SpaceShipOne

Military and War Museums and Memorials

• Imperial War Museum, London
• Intrepid, Sea, Air & Space Museum, New York
• Australian War Memorial
• Darwin Military Museum, Australia
• Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne, Australia
• Changi Museum, Singapore
• War Museum of Thessaloniki, Greece
• Churchill War Rooms, London
• Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira, New Zealand
• Household Cavalry Museum, London
• National Army Museum, London
• MacArthur Museum Brisbane

SpaceShipOne

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“Isn’t it astonishing that all these secrets have been preserved for so many years,
just so we could discover them!”
-Orville Wright

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Photo Credit: 1)By Joyofmuseums (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons 2) Ad Meskens [Attribution, CC BY-SA 3.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons