After several days of frustration, I finally located some decent pictures of the Rutan brothers' approach to climbing above the atmosphere at ... (The link I originally had here doesn't work any more. See http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/New_Index/photos/photos_text.htm for links to the original pictures and some newer ones. )  Unfortunately, the pictures they  make available are too big to download in a reasonable length of time, so I'm putting reduced copies of them here to make them more readily available. The Rutans, individually and as a team, already have several major accomplishments behind them, including the first manned aircraft to circle the earth without refueling, and are my favorites to win the X-Prize for building the first privately funded vehicle to leave the atmosphere twice in two weeks.

Update: The White Knight flew with SpaceShipOne attached for the first time on 5/20/03.
See http://www.msnbc.com/news/921104.asp?0cl=cR

Update: SpaceShipOne made it's maiden (unpowered) flight on 8/7/03.
See http://www.msnbc.com/news/950356.asp?0cv=CB20

Update: SpaceShipOne, launched from White Knight, broke the sound barrier for the first time on 12/17/03, 100 years to the day after the Wright brothers' first flight. Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder and America's 3rd-richest man, acknowledged on 12/17 that he is the main source of funding for the White Knight/SpaceShipOne project. See http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3217961/, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/12/17/tech/main589204.shtml,  http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031218/ap_on_sc/space_rocket_1, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/12/17/state1741EST0095.DTL, http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/rutan_update_031217.html, and http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/031217/175727_1.html.


Click here for an article that explains what this is about.

Another interesting related article reports a rumor that Paul Allen, who cofounded Microsoft, is putting up the money for the Rutan effort. [Note 12/17/03: He admitted it today]

What is the X Prize? http://www.xprize.org/

See also: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_medical/story.jsp?story=430664 for some interesting reading concerning Jeff Bezos' X Prize efforts.


SpaceShipOne

SpaceShipOne made its first unpowered flight on 8/7/03 and broke the sound barrier on 12/17/03.
( See the above links.)


WhiteKnight, the mother ship



Mated for takeoff

{This configuration first flew on 5/20/03.See the link near the top of the page}