Posted on 10/06/2004 5:30:25 PM PDT by BenLurkin
From the stars of space to the stars of Hollywood, the prize-winning SpaceShipOne team is coming to a television near you. Tonight, spaceship designer Burt Rutan and astronauts Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie will be guests on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" at 11:35 p.m. on KNBC-TV (Channel 4).
Piloted by Binnie, SpaceShipOne rocketed into space at nearly 368,000 feet Monday, securing the $10 million Ansari X Prize.
Melvill piloted the first space light required for the international competition, reaching 337,500 feet less than a week earlier. He was also the pilot on the first privately funded manned mission to space on June 21, which made him the 433rd person to fly in space and the first civilian commercial astronaut.
Following that flight, Melvill and Rutan appeared with Leno, with an invitation to return.
Rutan, the astronauts and the other members of the SpaceShipOne team also are featured in "Black Sky: The Race for Space" on The Discovery Channel (Adelphia Channel 43). This documentary followed the entire course of the private space program, from design concept to Monday's space flight.
The first part - two hours covering the program's inception through the first spaceflight on June 21 - first aired Oct. 3.
The second segment, detailing the two flights that made up the winning Ansari X Prize attempt, will air Thursday from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Rutan praised the first segment at Monday's festivities, saying it was the first report to truly capture the space program.
"What they did there is to show very deep insight to our program," he said. "It's an amazing piece on the development of a private space program."
Ping
USA ! USA ! USA !
"Civilian astronaut Brian Binnie stands atop SpaceShipOne with a flag that he carried into space Monday morning at Mojave Airport Civilian Aerospace Test Center. "I wake up every morning and thank God I live in a country where all this can happen," he said." ROB LAYMAN/Valley Press
ping
Thanks for the ping PE.
bump
FYI The First lady is on the Tonight show NOW
I got to peek inside Scaled Composites some years ago, but a non-disclosure agreement prevents me from saying what I saw (but it was cool! :)
Thanks PE.
Great American ingenuity BUMP!
I fell asleep and missed Leno. :^(
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