Sat. 4/22.
Took the Metro to the Air & Space (Smithsonian) Museum. Free admission today! Toured the museum and saw the IMAX movie, D-Day.
SpaceShipOne is an experimental air-launched rocket-powered aircraft with suborbital flight capability at speeds of up to 900 m/s (3,000 ft/s), using a hybrid rocket motor. The design features a unique “feathering” atmospheric reentry system where the rear half of the wing and the twin tail booms folded upward along a hinge running the length of the wing; this increased drag while remaining stable. SpaceShipOne completed the first manned private spaceflight in 2004. That same year, it won the US$10 million Ansari X Prize and was immediately retired from active service. Its mother ship was named “White Knight”. Both craft were developed and flown by Mojave Aerospace Ventures, which was a joint venture between Paul Allen and Scaled Composites, Burt Rutan’s aviation company. Allen provided the funding of approximately US$25 million.