First Private Manned Mission to Space

On June 21, investor and philanthropist Paul G. Allen and Scaled Composites of Mojave, California, launched the first private manned vehicle beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. Under the command of test pilot Mike Melvill, SpaceShipOne (shown above) reached an altitude of 328,491 feet (just over 62 miles or 100 km), making Melvill the first civilian to fly a spaceship out of the atmosphere and the first private pilot to earn astronaut wings.

The historic flight marks the first time an aerospace program has successfully completed a manned mission without government sponsorship.“Our success proves without question that manned space flight does not require mammoth government expenditures,” says Burt Rutan, Scaled Composites’ founder, CEO, and designer of the ship. “It can be done by a small company operating with limited resources and a few dozen dedicated employees.”

A large crowd watched the flight live from the grounds of the Mojave Airport, joining millions of others around the world who tuned in by television, radio, and the internet. Dignitaries attending the event included U.S. Representative Dana Rohrabacher, the Commanding Officer of Edwards Air Force Base, General Pearson, and the China Lake Naval Air Warfare Center, Admiral Venlet; former astronaut Buzz Aldrin, and Konrad Dannenberg, one of Werner Von Braun’s lead scientists on this country’s original space development effort.