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PALMDALE - A stubby, star-spangled spacecraft made history in June 2004 in the skies over Mojave as the first privately funded manned space program. The story of SpaceShipOne and the people behind its success - notables such as aerospace designer Burt Rutan and mogul Sir Richard Branson - has been told in a variety of forums, but a new book brings it all together and offers a look at the more technical aspects of the program. "SpaceShipOne: An Illustrated History" chronicles the development and successful spaceflights of the Mojave-based project which ushered in the possibility of space travel for the...

MOJAVE - Take a few shouted choruses of the traditional launch countdown. Add the hiss of a model rocket engine, a streak of white smoke and a small, dark object in a clear desert sky. Throw in the enthusiasm of more than 400 elementary school students, complete with team shirts, banners and cheers, and you have the Intermediate Space Challenge. The challenge, conducted Friday morning at the Mojave Air and Space Port, pits classroom teams of fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders from Mojave and California City schools in a competition to build a high-flying model rocket as well as to create...

Virgin Galactic today unveiled the design of its new space launch system based on SpaceShipOne, which successfully flew into space for the third time in October 2004 and won the $10m Ansari X Prize. The construction of the White Knight Two (WK2) mothership, or carrier aircraft, is now very close to completion at Scaled Composites in Mojave, CA and is expected to begin flight testing in the summer of 2008. White Knight Two will be the world's largest, all carbon composite aircraft. It is designed to have the capability of launching SpaceShipTwo -- carrying six passengers and two pilots --...

The company that flew the first privately funded manned rocket into space has been cited in connection with an explosion last summer that killed three workers, the state said today. California occupational safety inspectors said in a report that Scaled Composites LLC failed to properly train workers about the dangers of nitrous oxide that was used during a test in July. The state levied three citations against Scaled, including two that were considered "serious," and fined the spaceship builder $25,870. The company has 15 days to pay or appeal. Three workers died and three were seriously injured in the explosion...

Virgin Galactic's suborbital rocket glider SpaceShipTwo (SS2) could have a low wing and its carrier aircraft, White Knight II (WK2), a 43m (140ft) wingspan and four engines, chief designer Burt Rutan has said. Rutan, chief executive of Scaled Composites and a director of the Virgin Group-Scaled WK2/SS2 intellectual rights joint venture The Spaceship Company, revealed the possible design changes at the Responsibility for the Future Exploration and Development of Space Symposium, held at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa on 25 August. In Virgin Galactic's conceptual images, SS2 has a mid-wing, unlike its predecessor SpaceShipOne (SS1), and WK2 has two...

Rocketeers By Michael Belfiore Smithsonian, 305 pages, $26.95 American space exploration had a rough time of it on Thursday. NASA's already bruised reputation took a one-two punch with revelations that on at least two occasions astronauts were allowed to fly even though they were intoxicated and that a computer due to be delivered to the International Space Station in August had been sabotaged. The news might have bolstered the case for the increasingly robust efforts at privately funded space ventures, except Thursday also brought news of a deadly explosion at a Mojave Desert airport where a propellant system for a...

If you're a fan of SpaceShipOne, the world's first privately developed manned spacecraft, it's pretty hard to beat last year's act at the EAA AirVenture show in Oshkosh, Wis., when the historic rocket plane was flown in for an appearance on the way to the Smithsonian. But today, AirVenture is unveiling a replica in its Oshkosh museum that can do something the original is no longer able to accomplish. Don't expect the replica to zoom out of the place where it's hung in the AirVenture Museum to the edge of outer space, like its forebear did back in 2004 to...

A true-to-life replica of the historic SpaceShipOne spacecraft is set to debut at the Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture Museum in Oshkosh, Wis. The replica was built by employees at Scaled Composites in Mojave using the same composite molds as the original spacecraft. "To have SpaceShipOne built from the same molds, by the same people, is really something special," said Dick Knapinski , association spokesman. Designed by Burt Rutan, SpaceShipOne shot into the record books with a trio of suborbital spaceflights above Mojave in 2004, making it the world's first privately funded manned space program. The last two flights to the...

LOS ANGELES - Maverick aerospace designer Burt Rutan on Thursday criticized NASA's decision to use an Apollo-style capsule to return to the moon, saying it "doesn't make any sense" to build a new generation of space vehicles using old technology. The designer of SpaceShipOne said NASA's proposed crew exploration vehicle to replace the aging space shuttle fleet doesn't push the technical envelope needed to accomplish more complex future missions that might include manned flights to other planets and moons. "I don't know what they're doing," said Rutan, referring to NASA. "It doesn't make any sense." Rutan said there needs to...

In Bob Newhart’s classic comedy routine, “Merchandising the Wright Brothers,” he has an imaginary phone conversation with Orville and Wilbur just after their historic flight at Kitty Hawk. As a marketing guy, Bob is concerned about the length of the flight. He’s worried that people who pay for a trip to the coast won’t be happy at having to land every hundred feet. And what about getting a john on board? This illustrates the phenomenon I call the “Kitty Hawk Moment”. It is that instant when the impossible becomes a reality. Is it any wonder that people find it hard...

California lawmakers took steps this week to provide an outlay of funds for the inland Mojave Spaceport, an action also designed to keep the state aggressive in public space travel and space enterprise. The California Legislature has moved a bill to invest $11 million in the Mojave Spaceport. Noting competition from other states and nations, the Senate Committee on Transportation voted on a bipartisan 8-1 vote in favor of Senate Bill 1671 by State Senator Roy Ashburn that will ensure a competitive advantage for the first, and only, inland spaceport in the United States. The measure would establish a loan...

Virgin Galactic is a company established by Richard Branson's Virgin Group to undertake the challenge of developing space tourism for everybody. Virgin Galactic will own and operate privately built spaceships, modelled on the history-making SpaceShipOne craft. These spaceships will allow affordable sub-orbital space tourism for the first time in our history. Due to the unique technology developed by Burt Rutan, this space craft design has overcome the difficult issues of re-entry into the earth's atmosphere faced by so many designers trying to create efficient, re-usable space vehicles. We believe that it is in mankind's interest to develop our knowledge and...

rocketed into history in the skies over Mojave in the first privately funded, manned space flight. On Oct. 5, 2005, SpaceShipOne will take its place with other icons in the history of flight, as it is unveiled in the Milestones of Flight Gallery of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. The spacecraft, the creation of designer extraordinaire Burt Rutan and his Scaled Composites team, will hang suspended between Chuck Yeager's Bell X-1, the first aircraft to break the sound barrier, and Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis, the first aircraft to complete a solo flight across the Atlantic. "It...

SAN LUIS OBISPO - The nation's youth need something new and exciting to inspire them to be the creative geniuses of tomorrow, Burt Rutan believes. Rutan, arguably one of today's most creative geniuses, thinks commercial manned spaceflight is the answer to that challenge. Rutan outlined his vision for the future of personal space travel for the masses Friday at his alma mater, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. The noted aviation designer - seen by many as responsible for launching a new era in spaceflight with his SpaceShipOne spacecraft - was honored by the university during its annual Fall...

OSHKOSH, Wis. - When SpaceShipOne rocketed into space over Mojave last year, claiming the $10 million Ansari X Prize, the feat represented, not the end of a journey to create the first privately funded, manned space program, but the launch a new era of human spaceflight. "We're on the verge of the most amazing period of human evolution ever," where humankind begins to move off this planet and into space, said Peter Diamandis, chairman of the X Prize Foundation. Going into space is a "moral imperative," Diamandis told visitors to the Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture 2005 on Thursday. The annual...

Invent the Lever Dennis Polhill / Alex Schroeder Opinion Editorial July 13, 2005 If one could put $100 in the bank and get back $4000, one would be a fool to not do it. A $10 million prize offered by a St. Louis group has stimulated $400 million in research and development since 1996. Equally important, the X-Prize accomplished in eight years what NASA considered impossible. The contest motivated Burt Rutan to build the world's first privately funded spacecraft. Space Ship One went into space for the third time on October 4, 2004 to win the X-Prize. Since X-Prize inception,...

The X-37 -- an unpiloted, reusable spaceplane – made its first captive-carry flight today under the wings of the White Knight, flying above Mojave, California desert. The Boeing, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), NASA-supported vehicle had undergone a systematic step-by-step pre-flight checkout. At the Mojave, California Spaceport Scaled Composites' White Knight carrier plane had previously taken the X-37 for repeated runs down the runway – all in preparation for today's liftoff and return landing of the twosome. Tagged by DARPA as an Approach and Landing Test Vehicle (ALTV), the X-37 will undergo captive carry flights, followed by high-altitude drop...

The future looks bright for civilian suborbital spaceflight, with a host of private firms developing spacecraft to carry anyone with a willing heart and a robust bank account on the ultimate trip. One year after the history-making suborbital space shot of SpaceShipOne, commercial spaceflight efforts continue to make headway through government regulation and technological hurdles, each with its eye on the space tourism market. On June 21, 2004, the privately-built SpaceShipOne dropped from its White Knight mothership above the Mojave Desert and rocketed into history as the first civilian-funded spacecraft to reach suborbital space with a human pilot at the...

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today criticized plans to move forward with missions to the moon and Mars with an impending record deficit, chronic management problems at NASA, and unresolved questions about the missions’ cost and feasibility. NASA’s new administrator Michael Griffin has said that the space agency will have the money to implement President Bush’s “Vision for Space Exploration,” aimed at returning humans to the moon by 2020 and eventually sending them to Mars. “A manned mission to Mars is of questionable scientific value and could cost up to $1 trillion,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said. “The immense technological...

ARLINGTON, Virginia – The long-awaited and long-delayed debut of the privately-built Falcon 1 rocket has a launch date in sight. "August would be a good bet," said Elon Musk, chairman and chief executive officer of Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) of El Segundo, California. The rocketeer and his team are anxiously awaiting liftoff of a Titan 4 carrying a classified payload from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California – now slated to take to the air around mid-July, he said. "We expect the range would assign us a launch date that is within two to three weeks of the Titan...

ARLINGTON, Virginia – The long-awaited and long-delayed debut of the privately-built Falcon 1 rocket has a launch date in sight. "August would be a good bet," said Elon Musk, chairman and chief executive officer of Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) of El Segundo, California. The rocketeer and his team are anxiously awaiting liftoff of a Titan 4 carrying a classified payload from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California – now slated to take to the air around mid-July, he said.

Details of a new passenger-carrying rocket are emerging from Blue Origin, the Seattle-based company spearheaded by Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com. The first test flight of the rocket in unpiloted mode is slated for late next year. On the group’s web site, they have posted an update on their reusable launch vehicle (RLV) work. The exposure is tied to steps needed in securing an operator license from the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Office of Commercial Space Transportation in Washington, D.C. That FAA office has had several meetings with Blue Origin, said Patricia Smith, Associate Administrator for the Office of Commercial...

A public meeting was held June 14 in Van Horn, Texas as part of a series of steps to gain a governmental okay for Blue Origin to launch its rockets. Blue Origin is the Seattle-based company bankrolled by Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, to create and launch passenger-carrying spacecraft. “The public information meetings are part of the environmental assessment process required by the FAA,” said Gwen Griffin, a spokesperson for the rocket group. “The meetings are for the public to make comments or ask questions about Blue Origin’s proposal,” she told SPACE.com. A launch operator license must be obtained from...

The road to space for a Canadian spaceship is a bit shorter now that its rocketeer team has found a suitable launch site. The Ontario-based firm PLANETSPACE/Canadian Arrow announced today that it has chosen a military base near Cape Rich, just off Georgian Bay, as the proving ground for its manned suborbital spacecraft. Located on the Canadian Forces Meaford Range and Testing Area, the site will host engine test fires, escape system shakedowns and ultimately the first flights for the Canadian Arrow launch vehicle, project officials told SPACE.com. “It’s about 70 square kilometers (44 square miles), so it’s a huge...

Following an on-the-pad short burst firing of their Falcon 1 rocket engine last month, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) is on track for a maiden flight of the privately-built booster. Assuming that there are no further delays in lofting a Titan 4 classified mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California – now slated for a July departure – SpaceX expects to receive a Falcon 1 launch window from that spaceport for an August timeframe. The five second engine firing on May 27 of Falcon 1’s Merlin main engine was “picture perfect,” explained Elon Musk, chairman and chief executive officer...

The innovative carrier plane used to air launch SpaceShipOne has a new mission. At the Mojave, California inland spaceport, the White Knight mothership has been involved in fit and high-speed taxi checks with a new passenger – the X-37, an unpiloted, reusable spaceplane. The White Knight/X-37 combination has undergone a set of recent ground evaluations, including high-speed taxi testing this week. Designed by Scaled Composites of Mojave, California, the White Knight was utilized to haul SpaceShipOne to altitude and then released the piloted rocketplane for its record-setting suborbital treks, including the snagging of the high-stakes $10 million Ansari X Prize...

Red Tape For SpaceShipTwo SS1 has launched a new era in civil aviation that could lead to civil spaceflight. Desktop available 1024x768 by Irene Mona Klotz Cape Canaveral (UPI) Apr 26, 2005 Last week, aspiring personal spaceflight operator Virgin Galactic quietly delayed the target date for launching its first commercial suborbital spaceflight by a year or so -- not surprising considering the scope and technical complexity of building a space vehicle for tourists instead of professional astronauts. What did raise eyebrows during the congressional hearing on commercial space -- which is where Will Whitehorn, Virgin Galactic's president, dropped his news...

Speaking before the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics today, SpaceShipOne designer Burt Rutan said the commercial space industry will thrive but the current regulatory system is need of repair and nearly destroyed his program. Rutan was one a of a group experts in the emerging commercial space market to testify before lawmakers. Congress is attempting to define what role the government should or shouldn’t play in supporting entrepreneurial space progress. The potential of space tourism was made all the more real by last year’s successful suborbital flights by SpaceShipOne, the world’s first privately-built and human-piloted spaceship. Work is underway...

WASHINGTON - The inventor of the first private spaceship predicted Wednesday that commercial manned space flight would move quickly from joyrides for millionaires to the general public and spawn advances not yet imagined — much as early computers opened the way for the Internet.

Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics Hearing Charter: Future Markets for Commercial Space Future Markets for Commercial Space April 20, 2005 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon 2318 Rayburn House Office Building Purpose: On Wednesday, April 20, at 9:30 a.m., the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics will hold a hearing to examine the future of the commercial space market and the government's role in that future. Last year, the President signed into law the Science Committee's Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act, which dealt with regulating one aspect of commercial space - private, human suborbital flights, which are generally intended for space tourism....

MOJAVE - Time is running out for those interested in claiming souvenirs of the historic SpaceShipOne spaceflights. The nonprofit Rocket Boosters will cease Internet sales of the exclusive licensed merchandise on March 15. The gear - shirts, mugs, calendars, pins and similar memorabilia - may be ordered at the organization's Web site, www.rocketboosters.org. As the sale is winding down, some merchandise is limited. Created by famed aviation designer Burt Rutan and built at his Scaled Composites in Mojave, SpaceShipOne made history last year as the first privately funded, manned space program. It claimed the $10 million Ansari X Prize with...

The world’s first privately developed spaceship, SpaceShipOne, will be taking a coast-to-coast victory lap this summer, tucked underneath its White Knight carrier airplane on a trip to the Smithsonian, organizers told MSNBC.com Thursday.

Star Trek Enterprise has been cancelled but a fan movement to privately fund a fifth season has just had a huge contribution. Great news for fans of Enteprise! Im not surprised its from entrepreneurs with long reaching vision. The benefactors also added a statement explaining why they believe this campaign deserves such a substantial contribution: "We think Star Trek and especially its latest incarnation, "Enterprise" is the kind of TV that should be aired more often. The people responsible at Paramount think this is just a show and we want to tell them, it is not. We are in the...

People who are looking to travel into space may be required to follow a set of guidelines proposed by the U.S. Transportation Department and the Federal Aviation Administration. The draft, written by the FAA, may ask aspiring astronauts to get a physical and sign consent forms stating they understand the risks associated with launching into space. The FAA also suggested that operators of reusable launch vehicles inform their passengers of the safety record of the vehicle they are using, and provide safety training before the launch. "We're not going to lose sight of safety," Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said on...

MOJAVE - The team behind SpaceShipOne, the first privately funded, manned space program, has won aviation's top prize, the prestigious Robert J. Collier Trophy. With announcement of the award Monday, SpaceShipOne joins the likes of Orville Wright, Howard Hughes, Chuck Yeager, Scott Crossfield and the crew of Apollo 11. The Collier Trophy has been awarded each year since 1911 by the National Aeronautic Association "for the greatest achievement in aviation in America …" "It's the Medal of Honor of aviation; it's aviation's Oscar," said Dick Rutan, who led the nomination effort for SpaceShipOne. The brainchild of noted aviation designer Burt...

Rutan Rocks....... "Maybe that explains why he, and Branson, have already signed up -- and not just for themselves: each has also reserved a seat for his father. I guess that's a pretty good expression of confidence in the program. After all, Rutan has already said, if a flight was risky, he could be safer and crew it with "a lawyer. Or a liberal."

PASADENA - The Rose Parade float that almost wasn't came through in fine fashion Saturday, not only representing the Antelope Valley as it made its way down the famed Colorado Boulevard parade route, but by also grabbing the Princess Trophy for most beautiful small float, under 35 feet. Float organizers speculated that perhaps it had something to do with the luck and charisma of a few of its riders who had already won a coveted prize in their own field: aerospace designer Burt Rutan and pilot-astronauts Michael Melvill and Brian Binnie of SpaceShipOne fame. "We're just ecstatic," said Mary Rainwater,...

Much like the "Golden Age" of aviation in the early decades of the 20th century, cash prizes are emerging as a means of encouraging new developments in the next aviation frontier: space travel. Propelled by the success of the $10 million Ansari X Prize, entrepreneurs, businesses and even the government are getting into the act by offering various awards to further efforts for space flight. Once considered the sole realm of governments, manned space travel has moved into the commercial and entrepreneurial world in recent years. The best-known - and so far only successful - of these programs is SpaceShipOne,...

One small step for space tourism... If plans for a new range of suborbital vehicles get off the drawing board, then holidays in space could get off the ground In the past year, a lot has changed in the field of human spaceflight. In January, President George Bush brushed aside the fact that America's entire space-shuttle fleet was grounded when he announced grandiose plans to put people back on the moon, and then to launch a manned mission to Mars. In June, Burt Rutan, an American aeronautical engineer, showed that human spaceflight was no longer the preserve of governments by...

By ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Outer space could become the final frontier of tourism under legislation passed Wednesday by the Senate to regulate commercial human spaceflight. The bill, approved by voice vote in the final minutes of the 108th Congress, would authorize the Federal Aviation Administration to issue permits allowing private spacecraft operators to blast paying passengers into space. The agency would also regulate the young industry, which was invigorated by the successful flights of a privately financed manned rocket over California's Mojave Desert in October. While laws exist to regulate private-sector space endeavors such as satellite...

TORONTO, Nov. 21 /CNW/ - TIME Magazine has chosen SpaceShipOne - the first private manned spacecraft to fly to the edge of space and back - their 2004 Coolest Invention of the Year. The story can be found inside TIME's annual Coolest Inventions of the Year issue (dated November 29th, 2004, on newsstands tomorrow). TIME's Chris Taylor writes, "This year, more than four decades after Shepard's flight, only two Americans have made the jump into space from U.S. soil - both launched not by NASA but by Rutan's tiny company, known for build-your-own-airplane kits. Thanks to the backing of two...

A maverick aviator with Elvis-like sideburns, Burt Rutan spread his futuristic vision Friday of space travel no longer dominated by the government but by daring engineers like himself. Seeking to inspire students, faculty and visitors at the University of California at Los Angeles, Rutan offered a new vision for 21st Century commercial travel--including "spacelines" instead of airlines and resort hotels in orbit--taking average citizens where only handfuls of astronauts have tread thus far. Dressed in blue jeans and a matching shirt, Rutan called for a new era in aviation, saying risk-taking adventurers like the Wright brothers are needed again to...

No sooner had SpaceShipOne safely landed in the Mojave Desert, making history as the first privately-funded manned space vehicle, than government officials rekindled their desire to regulate this nascent private industry. Such concern for the safety of future space travelers is commendable but somewhat disingenuous, given Congress' rather poor record of oversight in maintaining the safety of NASA's Space Shuttle program. The revolutionary SpaceShipOne project was started by Burt Rutan partially in response to the challenge setup by the X-Prize. The prize was created to reward the first privately funded team that sent a three-person spacecraft into space on two...

CBS) If you thought that the drive, determination and spirit that carried the United States to the moon is gone, that "The Right Stuff" is history, think again. A new space race is under way, Correspondent Ed Bradley reports, but this time it's among private companies working for passengers - and for profit. Burt Rutan may not be familiar to you, but to astronauts, pilots and aeronautical engineers – basically anyone who knows anything about airplanes – he is a legend. A maverick aeronautical engineer, Rutan has designed and built more than 40 revolutionary airplanes. Now he's set out to...

ST. LOUIS - Just over one month ago, SpaceShipOne streaked across the boundary of space high above Mojave, making history as the first privately funded manned space program and winning the $10 million Ansari X-Prize. Not only did the stubby spacecraft prove that a small company can repeatedly send a man to suborbital space and return him successfully, but the SpaceShipOne program also has become a great source of inspiration for thousands interested in space and science. That effect was clearly evident Saturday as more than 2,000 people turned out to meet those responsible for the civilian space program as...

MOJAVE - Scaled Composites released flight test logs Friday for SpaceShipOne's twin spaceflights to claim the $10 million Ansari X-Prize, detailing the flights that took civilian astronauts Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie beyond the Earth's atmosphere twice in less than a week. The international competition, intended to encourage private space ventures, required a privately funded spacecraft to carry a pilot and the equivalent weight of two passengers to 100 kilometers - 328,000 feet - above the Earth, return safely and repeat the mission within two weeks. Designed by Burt Rutan and funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, SpaceShipOne rocketed into...

SpaceShipOne visionary Peter Diamandis wasn't thinking about history as he stood in the Mojave desert and watched a small, shuttlecock-shaped craft glide back to Earth having nudged the edge of space. He just thought it looked beautiful. It was only the following day, after the thousands of cheering spectators had disappeared, after the jubilant speeches had dried up along with the champagne, as Diamandis was driving his father back to Los Angeles, that euphoria — and relief — swept over him. So many people had trusted him, backed him, bailed him out even when others had ridiculed his notion of...

Before we get rolling on John Kerry’s commitment to a “global test” for American foreign policy, let’s take a look at the latest giant leap for mankind that took place over the Mojave Desert in California this week. The two events are related, in a curious way. SpaceShipOne was an ugly duckling, designed by Burt Rutan for the precise purpose of winning the Ansari X Prize of $10 million. A generation from now, no one will remember the name of the prize, only the fact of the first private, entrepreneurial step into space. Just like no one today remembers the...

Mojave CA (UPI) Oct 5, 2004 The world's newest spaceship is back at its spotless hangar at the Mojave Airport, serving as a backdrop for dozens of television news shows. The day after its flawless third flight out of the atmosphere - a mission that captured a $10-million cash prize for its owners - it was quiet. Only a handful of the thousands of guests who came to witness the flight remained in town. Still spanking new, SpaceShipOne has fulfilled its mission, forever retiring the notion that only governments can fly people beyond the atmosphere. Spaceship creator Burt Rutan plans...

From the stars of space to the stars of Hollywood, the prize-winning SpaceShipOne team is coming to a television near you. Tonight, spaceship designer Burt Rutan and astronauts Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie will be guests on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" at 11:35 p.m. on KNBC-TV (Channel 4). Piloted by Binnie, SpaceShipOne rocketed into space at nearly 368,000 feet Monday, securing the $10 million Ansari X Prize. Melvill piloted the first space light required for the international competition, reaching 337,500 feet less than a week earlier. He was also the pilot on the first privately funded manned mission...