Slung below its equally innovative mothershipdubbed White Knight SpaceShipOnerides above planet Earth,photographed during a recent flight test.SpaceShipOne was designed and built by cutting-edge aeronauticalengineer BurtRutan and his company Scaled Composites to compete fo the X Prize.The 10 million dollar X prize is open to private companies and requiresthe successful launch of a spaceship which carries three peopleon short sub-orbital flightsto an altitude of 100 kilometers -- ascenario similar to the early mannedspaceflights ofNASA's Mercury Program.Unlike more conventiona rocket flights to space,SpaceShipOne will first b carried to an altitude of 50,000 feetby the twin turbojet White Knight and then released beforeigniting its ow hybridsolid fuel rocket engine.After the climb to space,the craft will convert to a stable high dragconfiguration for re-entry, ultimately landing like aconventional glider at light plane speeds.
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