Private manned spaceflight program unveiled
Friday,April18,2003,6:27 PM
Mojave, California-AP -- After two years of secrecy, a private manned spaceflight project has been unveiled. Two craft have been put on show at a California desert airport. They are a rocket plane dubbed "SpaceShipOne," and the "White Knight," an exotic jet designed to carry it aloft for a high-altitude launch.
They're at the same airport where designer Burt Rutan developed "Voyager," the airplane that made the first nonstop, unrefueled flight around the world in 1986.
The stubby-winged SpaceShipOne is meant to carry three people to an altitude of 62-point-five miles. Tests continue, and no date's been set for the first flight.
Rutan says his financial backer wants to stay anonymous. Success could bring him the ten (m) million-dollar X Prize pledged to the first privately funded manned space flight.
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