Dawn of the commercial space age.On Oct. 4, SpaceShipOne dropped from its mother ship at an altitude of 50,000 feet, ignited ig·nite v. ig·nit·ed, ig·nit·ing, ig·nites v.tr. 1. a. To cause to burn. b. To set fire to. 2. To subject to great heat, especially to make luminous by heat. its engine, and then shot to a height of 378,000 feet, or 115.1 kilometers, a world record for a rocket-powered plane. Because the privately funded plane pierced the 100-km altitude that marks the edge of space for the second time within a week--and did so carrying extra weight representing two passenger--its design team claimed the $10 million Ansari X prize The Ansari X PRIZE was a space competition in which the X PRIZE Foundation offered a US$10,000,000 prize for the first non-government organization to launch a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice within two weeks. , which was established in 1996 to spur commercial space travel. Microsoft cofounder co·found tr.v. co·found·ed, co·found·ing, co·founds To establish or found in concert with another or others. co·found Paul G. Allen bankrolled the SpaceShipOne project with at least $20 million. Monday's flight occurred on the 47th anniversary of the former Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik Sputnik: see satellite, artificial; space exploration. Sputnik Any of a series of Earth-orbiting spacecraft whose launching by the Soviet Union inaugurated the space age. I, the world's first artificial satellite. SpaceShipOne is shown with its mother ship. |
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