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The world’s first privately developed spaceship, SpaceShipOne, will be taking a coast-to-coast victory lap this summer, tucked underneath its White Knight carrier airplane on a trip to the Smithsonian, organizers told MSNBC.com Thursday.

Star Trek Enterprise has been cancelled but a fan movement to privately fund a fifth season has just had a huge contribution. Great news for fans of Enteprise! Im not surprised its from entrepreneurs with long reaching vision. The benefactors also added a statement explaining why they believe this campaign deserves such a substantial contribution: "We think Star Trek and especially its latest incarnation, "Enterprise" is the kind of TV that should be aired more often. The people responsible at Paramount think this is just a show and we want to tell them, it is not. We are in the...

People who are looking to travel into space may be required to follow a set of guidelines proposed by the U.S. Transportation Department and the Federal Aviation Administration. The draft, written by the FAA, may ask aspiring astronauts to get a physical and sign consent forms stating they understand the risks associated with launching into space. The FAA also suggested that operators of reusable launch vehicles inform their passengers of the safety record of the vehicle they are using, and provide safety training before the launch. "We're not going to lose sight of safety," Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said on...

MOJAVE - The team behind SpaceShipOne, the first privately funded, manned space program, has won aviation's top prize, the prestigious Robert J. Collier Trophy. With announcement of the award Monday, SpaceShipOne joins the likes of Orville Wright, Howard Hughes, Chuck Yeager, Scott Crossfield and the crew of Apollo 11. The Collier Trophy has been awarded each year since 1911 by the National Aeronautic Association "for the greatest achievement in aviation in America …" "It's the Medal of Honor of aviation; it's aviation's Oscar," said Dick Rutan, who led the nomination effort for SpaceShipOne. The brainchild of noted aviation designer Burt...

Rutan Rocks....... "Maybe that explains why he, and Branson, have already signed up -- and not just for themselves: each has also reserved a seat for his father. I guess that's a pretty good expression of confidence in the program. After all, Rutan has already said, if a flight was risky, he could be safer and crew it with "a lawyer. Or a liberal."

PASADENA - The Rose Parade float that almost wasn't came through in fine fashion Saturday, not only representing the Antelope Valley as it made its way down the famed Colorado Boulevard parade route, but by also grabbing the Princess Trophy for most beautiful small float, under 35 feet. Float organizers speculated that perhaps it had something to do with the luck and charisma of a few of its riders who had already won a coveted prize in their own field: aerospace designer Burt Rutan and pilot-astronauts Michael Melvill and Brian Binnie of SpaceShipOne fame. "We're just ecstatic," said Mary Rainwater,...

Much like the "Golden Age" of aviation in the early decades of the 20th century, cash prizes are emerging as a means of encouraging new developments in the next aviation frontier: space travel. Propelled by the success of the $10 million Ansari X Prize, entrepreneurs, businesses and even the government are getting into the act by offering various awards to further efforts for space flight. Once considered the sole realm of governments, manned space travel has moved into the commercial and entrepreneurial world in recent years. The best-known - and so far only successful - of these programs is SpaceShipOne,...

One small step for space tourism... If plans for a new range of suborbital vehicles get off the drawing board, then holidays in space could get off the ground In the past year, a lot has changed in the field of human spaceflight. In January, President George Bush brushed aside the fact that America's entire space-shuttle fleet was grounded when he announced grandiose plans to put people back on the moon, and then to launch a manned mission to Mars. In June, Burt Rutan, an American aeronautical engineer, showed that human spaceflight was no longer the preserve of governments by...

By ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Outer space could become the final frontier of tourism under legislation passed Wednesday by the Senate to regulate commercial human spaceflight. The bill, approved by voice vote in the final minutes of the 108th Congress, would authorize the Federal Aviation Administration to issue permits allowing private spacecraft operators to blast paying passengers into space. The agency would also regulate the young industry, which was invigorated by the successful flights of a privately financed manned rocket over California's Mojave Desert in October. While laws exist to regulate private-sector space endeavors such as satellite...

TORONTO, Nov. 21 /CNW/ - TIME Magazine has chosen SpaceShipOne - the first private manned spacecraft to fly to the edge of space and back - their 2004 Coolest Invention of the Year. The story can be found inside TIME's annual Coolest Inventions of the Year issue (dated November 29th, 2004, on newsstands tomorrow). TIME's Chris Taylor writes, "This year, more than four decades after Shepard's flight, only two Americans have made the jump into space from U.S. soil - both launched not by NASA but by Rutan's tiny company, known for build-your-own-airplane kits. Thanks to the backing of two...

A maverick aviator with Elvis-like sideburns, Burt Rutan spread his futuristic vision Friday of space travel no longer dominated by the government but by daring engineers like himself. Seeking to inspire students, faculty and visitors at the University of California at Los Angeles, Rutan offered a new vision for 21st Century commercial travel--including "spacelines" instead of airlines and resort hotels in orbit--taking average citizens where only handfuls of astronauts have tread thus far. Dressed in blue jeans and a matching shirt, Rutan called for a new era in aviation, saying risk-taking adventurers like the Wright brothers are needed again to...

No sooner had SpaceShipOne safely landed in the Mojave Desert, making history as the first privately-funded manned space vehicle, than government officials rekindled their desire to regulate this nascent private industry. Such concern for the safety of future space travelers is commendable but somewhat disingenuous, given Congress' rather poor record of oversight in maintaining the safety of NASA's Space Shuttle program. The revolutionary SpaceShipOne project was started by Burt Rutan partially in response to the challenge setup by the X-Prize. The prize was created to reward the first privately funded team that sent a three-person spacecraft into space on two...

CBS) If you thought that the drive, determination and spirit that carried the United States to the moon is gone, that "The Right Stuff" is history, think again. A new space race is under way, Correspondent Ed Bradley reports, but this time it's among private companies working for passengers - and for profit. Burt Rutan may not be familiar to you, but to astronauts, pilots and aeronautical engineers – basically anyone who knows anything about airplanes – he is a legend. A maverick aeronautical engineer, Rutan has designed and built more than 40 revolutionary airplanes. Now he's set out to...

ST. LOUIS - Just over one month ago, SpaceShipOne streaked across the boundary of space high above Mojave, making history as the first privately funded manned space program and winning the $10 million Ansari X-Prize. Not only did the stubby spacecraft prove that a small company can repeatedly send a man to suborbital space and return him successfully, but the SpaceShipOne program also has become a great source of inspiration for thousands interested in space and science. That effect was clearly evident Saturday as more than 2,000 people turned out to meet those responsible for the civilian space program as...

MOJAVE - Scaled Composites released flight test logs Friday for SpaceShipOne's twin spaceflights to claim the $10 million Ansari X-Prize, detailing the flights that took civilian astronauts Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie beyond the Earth's atmosphere twice in less than a week. The international competition, intended to encourage private space ventures, required a privately funded spacecraft to carry a pilot and the equivalent weight of two passengers to 100 kilometers - 328,000 feet - above the Earth, return safely and repeat the mission within two weeks. Designed by Burt Rutan and funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, SpaceShipOne rocketed into...

SpaceShipOne visionary Peter Diamandis wasn't thinking about history as he stood in the Mojave desert and watched a small, shuttlecock-shaped craft glide back to Earth having nudged the edge of space. He just thought it looked beautiful. It was only the following day, after the thousands of cheering spectators had disappeared, after the jubilant speeches had dried up along with the champagne, as Diamandis was driving his father back to Los Angeles, that euphoria — and relief — swept over him. So many people had trusted him, backed him, bailed him out even when others had ridiculed his notion of...

Before we get rolling on John Kerry’s commitment to a “global test” for American foreign policy, let’s take a look at the latest giant leap for mankind that took place over the Mojave Desert in California this week. The two events are related, in a curious way. SpaceShipOne was an ugly duckling, designed by Burt Rutan for the precise purpose of winning the Ansari X Prize of $10 million. A generation from now, no one will remember the name of the prize, only the fact of the first private, entrepreneurial step into space. Just like no one today remembers the...

Mojave CA (UPI) Oct 5, 2004 The world's newest spaceship is back at its spotless hangar at the Mojave Airport, serving as a backdrop for dozens of television news shows. The day after its flawless third flight out of the atmosphere - a mission that captured a $10-million cash prize for its owners - it was quiet. Only a handful of the thousands of guests who came to witness the flight remained in town. Still spanking new, SpaceShipOne has fulfilled its mission, forever retiring the notion that only governments can fly people beyond the atmosphere. Spaceship creator Burt Rutan plans...

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...

Signals from SpaceShipOne By Edward Hudgins On Oct. 4, 2004, the 47th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik, humanity again made spaceflight history. SpaceShipOne, designed by Burt Rutan and his company, Scaled Composites, and built with money from Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen, won the privately funded $10 million Ansari X Prize by becoming the first three-passenger private vehicle to fly into space twice in a two-week period. SpaceShipOne's triumph teaches us four lessons: