Message posted by Sundog on April 19, 2003 at 19:29:35 PST:

Hey everyone,
JIC you missed it, Rutan admitted, finally, the aircraft they began testing last August is the mothership for their X-Prize entry. For anyone who doesn't know, the X-Prize is the competetion awarding anyone $10 million dollars for being the first to fly into space privately (not government funded), which for the prize I think is defined as meet or exceed an altitude of 64 miles and then be able to turn around do it again within two weeks. The Rocket Plane is cool. Well, they both are. What really impressed me about the project is how both vehicles have the same nose, I don't know about the cockpit, but apparently, when landing/flying (As opposed to the Rocket planes ascent and re-entry), they both fly a similar profile and Rutan apparently designed them such that the flight crews of both vehicles would be pretty much interchangeable.

At the main link below for Scaled Composites, click on the paragraph in the lower left and it should take you to the SpaceShipOne web site. I tried the link to the lower right, but it didn't open properly. However, that may have just been me.

I am also posting an extra link here for the Space.com article.

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/rutan_scaled_0304187.html

I hope you guys enjoy it and have a Happy Easter. :)

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