Remembering the first space flight of SpaceShipOne.

On June 21 2004, the world’s first privately built spaceship was flown to space by a private astronaut-pilot for the first time. That remarkable flight and the ones that followed later in the year gave birth to Virgin Galactic and started the journey to create the world’s first commercial spaceline. George Whitesides, Virgin Galactic’s CEO reflects on the historic anniversary.

Ten years ago, the space industry was irrevocably changed. Early in the morning on June 21, 2004, the first ever private astronaut-pilot boarded the world’s first privately-built spaceship, and blasted off into outer space. For those of us gathered in the Mojave Desert to watch the flight, it was a suspenseful and ultimately joyous event, a day we’d always remember, and an experience we’ll tell our children and our grandchildren about many years from now. For millions of space enthusiasts around the world, it was a sign that finally, after all of these years, the space frontier was truly opening.

That vehicle, SpaceShipOne, now hangs in the Milestones of Flight hall at the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum. As amazing proof-of-concept vehicle, it had defied the conventional expertise about what was possible in human spaceflight. Not only had it worked and captured the imagination of millions, it had demonstrated that human spaceflight could be done affordably—after all, SpaceShipOne went from a drawing on a napkin through multiple flights into space and into the Smithsonian for about $30 million, a fraction of the estimated cost of a single flight of NASA’s space shuttle. And affordable space access is the key thing that had previously been missing; that last, intimidating barrier between the present and an exciting future where all of us who want to go to space can go to space.

Virgin Galactic press release. Read more..