This Day In History, 2004: SpaceShipOne
One year ago today, pilot Mike Melvill of Tier One made history by piloting SpaceShipOne into outer space, the first privately-funded human spaceflight. A few months later, SpaceShipOne made two more flights into outer space within a fourteen-day period, winning the Ansari X-Prize.
I'm still giddy when I think about that.
Okay, now we need the Ansari Mars Colony Prize.
Somehow, I suspect Rutan, Allen, etc., spent more than $10 million on SpaceShipOne.
It's probably more about bragging rights.
http://www.planetary.org/solarsail
(Note to self - File it away for next year's This Day in History.)