A man-made spacecraft flew out of Earth for the first time on Monday. 62-year-old pilot Mike Melville enjoyed 3,5 minutes at zero gravity at an altitude of 100 kilometers above the Nevada desert.
SpaceShipOne, a small, white-winged spacecraft, was originally flown at a height of 15 km, moored under the WhiteKnight aircraft. There, he released and fired his rocket engine for 80 seconds, accelerating up to 3 MAX almost vertically.
The flight, lasting 90 minutes, was sub-orbital, meaning that it had a speed slightly slower than that required for the spacecraft to enter orbit or to escape completely from the Earth's gravity.
SpaceShipOne was developed by California-based ScaledComposites, which is funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and Google co-founders, among others.
The vessel is expected to launch the competition for the X Prize, which will be awarded to the first private vehicle to make two sub-orbital flights in two weeks. The $ 10 million prize was set up as an incentive to bring space travel closer to the general public. SpaceShipOne shows that there is a will, perhaps technology, for easier access to space.
The ship was designed by Bert Ratan, founder of Scaled Composites and creator of the Voyager, the first airplane to fly around the world non-stop and without refueling.
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