THE ROCKET Passengers aboard SpaceShipOne (above) will experience 3.5-G acceleration on the ride up to 62.5 miles—attributable to the vehicle's light weight (approximately 6,000 pounds) and fiercely powerful hybrid rocket engine. That will be an ordeal for even the heartiest adventurer: Late test pilot Milt Thompson said of the X-15, which offered a comparable ride, that it was the only airplane he ever flew in which he was "glad when the engine quit." The three-seat SpaceShipOne will be trundled up to space via the White Knight mother ship (below right). The passenger craft attaches to the White Knight's belly for the first 50,000 feet of the journey.
Courtesy Scaled Composites