[true_blue_texican]

I disagree totally with that. Rutan did not have a NASA-like budget. Nor a NASA-like staff. He didn't have Navy aircraft carriers and helicopters at his disposal. My guess is that he did it on less than the X-15 budget (equalized dollars) and maybe even with fewer staff. His re-entry method alone was very novel!

[CWOJackson]

His "space" achievement is comparable to the first Mercury flight...not Apollo. Mercury funding was not that great and the government had not yet fully committed to the project. Even compared to Gemini, Mercury was extremely primitive and cheap.