SpaceShipOne: An Illustrated History

In April of 2003, a company called Scaled Composites lifted the veil of secrecy from a longtime research program and introduced SpaceShipOne to the world. And the age of commercial space travel took off . . . like a rocket. This book chronicles the development of the world’s first commercial manned space program--aprogram that includes an airborne launcher (the White Knight), a space ship (SpaceShipOne), rocket propulsion, avionics, simulator, and full ground support. With ample illustrations, photographs, and behind-the-scenes information, SpaceShipOne provides a full picture of this classified project--from the conception and design to the deals that brought together Scaled Composites’ Burt Rutan and Virgin Airlines’ Sir Richard Branson to the plans for building a fleet of commercial suborbital spaceships and launch aircraft.

The story of SpaceShipOne combines the adventurous spirit of Charles Lindbergh, the entrepreneurial drive of Howard Hughes, and the urgency of the space race at the height of the Cold War. Author Dan Linehan, who was there at the launch, lets readers in on the drama and details behind the making of spaceships that will take twenty-first-century tourists to the final frontier.

Features a never-before-seen cockpit diagram, created especially for this book, identifying all seventy of SpaceShipOne’s instruments and controls.

In 2004, Dan Linehan attended the launch of SpaceShipOne when it captured the Ansari X Prize. A senior science editor for educational publishing companies, he has a background in physics and engineering, and has written numerous articles about aviation and space. Linehan was the editor and principle feature writer for the California International Airshow’s event program from 2003 to 2005. During 2006 and 2007, he spent two months studying wildlife and environmental concerns in Antarctica and its surrounds. Dan lives in Monterey, California.