10 years ago, the first flight of a private spacecraft

On June 21, 2004, a private spacecraft (funded by Paul Allen) made its first successful space flight. SpaceShipOne would be more correct to call it a suborbital aircraft, since it did not go out into deep space, so to speak,.

But the fact remains that it was precisely 10 years ago that the development of such an industry as private space tourism was given impetus. By the way, the creators of SpaceShipOne received $ 10 million from Ansari X PRIZE for their successful flight.
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Now in this area involved several players, the most famous of which is Richard Branson with his SpaceShipTwo. At the beginning of the month, Virgin Galactic received a “space cart” permission from an organization such as the United States Federal Aviation Administration.

The government agreement requires the Virgin Galactic to continue working with the NAS (National Airspace System). In addition, safety measures for launching spacecraft from the Spaceport Spaceport have been specified. Last Virgin Galactic insured for 20 years.

In addition, several more companies are going to compete with Virgin Galactic, which have launched their own space tourism projects.

But a start was made with the launch of SpaceShipOne.

Via new space journal