Burt Rutan Wins the X-Prize!!

[Triggar]

THE DEFINITION OF "LEET SAUCE"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6167761/

http://www.local6.com/technology/3779893/detail.html

With former U.S. Navy test pilot Brian Binnie at the controls of a flight known as X2, SpaceShipOne reached space again Monday morning, according to X-Prize contest officials.

The flight to 368,000 feet earns a team of designers led by Burt Rutan and financed by Microsoft's Paul Allen a $10 million prize for being the first private company to send a manned rocket in space twice within 14 days.

The Ansari X-Prize was designed to foster development that could lead to routine, commercial spaceflight.

The X2 flight Monday took off underneath carrier plane White Knight a few minutes early, just before 10 a.m. EDT. About an hour later, the space plane fired its engine and headed straight up, eventually setting an altitude record for a plane-dropped craft that was established in the 1960s.

About 20 minutes after the rocket fired, Binnie -- the world's second civilian astronaut -- guided the glider down to a safe landing at the Mojave Spaceport.

During its 81-minute flight last week, SpaceShipOne climbed to 337,500 feet -- nearly 10,000 feet above its target, said Gregg Maryniak, executive director of the X-Prize Foundation.

At a news conference, Rutan thanked his pilot for a "nice drive."

He said that he has a goal bigger than the people at what he called "that other space agency" -- NASA.

He said he "has to" develop a manned space tourism industry that is at least 100 times safer than what NASA does. He said SpaceShipTwo should be safer than the first commercial airliners.

"This is really amazing," Allen said.

The ship began rolling as it neared space. Pilot Michael Melvill -- who flew White Knight Monday -- said he doesn't think he made a mistake, and the ship's designer has said he did not think the roll was serious. Melvill joked that it was just a victory roll, and later said that before correcting the roll he picked up a digital camera and took a few pictures.

Last week, airline mogul Richard Branson announced that he has licensed some of the technology from SpaceShipOne to develop a commercial spaceflight venture that could be in operation sometime in 2007.