Gadgetopia

SpaceShipOne captures X Prize: Yeah, baby. What a great headline. SpaceShipOne climbed into space for the second time in a week to claim the $10 million Ansari X Prize. X Prize officials said the privately funded craft reached 368,000 feet -- well into space -- Monday to win the $10 ...

World's first civilian space shot launches from Mojave Desert: No confirmmation on their altitude yet, but everyone is home safely. SpaceShipOne pilot Mike Melvill was aiming to fly 62 miles above the Earth's surface. The exact altitude reached was not immediately confirmed by radar. The ship touched down at Mojave ...

Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne made its first X-Prize attempt this morning. Early measurements indicate that the craft made it to space, but it did so rifled-bullet style, rolling rapidly. The engines were shut down 11 seconds early as a result. A sudden roll due to a stuck actuator had also caused ...

Just a reminder that SpaceShipOne lifts off from Mohave Spaceport at 10 a.m. EST this morning. It hasn't been decided if the craziest senior citizen in history, Mike Melvill, will pilot this time. (However, he's done the last two, so I really can't imagine them putting someone with no experience ...

TIME Coolest Inventions 2004: Invention of the Year: SpaceShipOne is Time Magazine's "Invention of the Year." Ingenious design. Entrepreneurial moxie. A world-changing vision of the future. The amazing SpaceShipOne has it all.

Virgin Galactic: Richard Branson, that hot air balloning nut and playboy of the airline business, has created a new company to offer paid spaceflights. He's entered a deal with Scaled Composites to license the technology behind SpaceShipOne. By the end of the decade, Virgin Galactic the most exciting development ...

Private spacecraft makes historic launch: SpaceShipOne is in the air as I write this, trying to become the first private, manned vehicle in space. I wish them every success toward this goal. Thousands gathered in the Mojave Desert to watch the launch of SpaceShipOne, the first private manned space flight. ...

Well, maybe not that far. Yet. The FAA on Wednesday licensed the first private rocket, and has given the green light for a real sub-orbital space flight. Burt Rutan and his California-based Scaled Composites have built SpaceShipOne, a funny looking rocket-powered plane that Burt hopes will usher in "a renaissance ...

Virgin Galactic has stated that if it's current planned craft, SpaceShipTwo, is successful, they'll try to build an orbital vehicle, SpaceShipThree. Orbital vehicle SpaceShipThree (SS3) will be developed by space tourism company Virgin Galactic and Mojave-based SpaceShipTwo (SS2)-developer Scaled Composites, if the planned SS2 suborbital service is successful, says Virgin ...

Scaled Composites, the X-Prize competitor funded by Microsoft mogul Paul Allen, and led by aviation uber-genius Burt Rutan, has scheduled a test flight that, if successful, will be the first space launch in history by the private sector. SpaceShipOne will rocket to 100 kilometers (62 miles) into sub-orbital space above ...

Burt Rutan (whom I would very much like to be as cool as when I grow up) has started work on SpaceShipTwo, the prototype for the ships that Virgin Galactic hopes to fly paying customers in. The BBC has the story: SpaceShipTwo will not look anything like its predecessor. For ...