From there, SpaceShipOne fired its engine and streaked skyward at about three times the speed of sound on a half-hour flight that took it more than 62 miles high, generally considered the point ...

It was a one-of-a-kind moment for a throng of well-wishers, including this reporter, all in nose-up, sky-squinting position at California's Mojave Airport on June 21, 2004. Let loose from its White ...

On June 21, 2004, SpaceShipOne reached the final frontier for the first time, notching a huge milestone for private spaceflight and paving the way for space tourism.

When SpaceShipOne screams skyward this month on a mission to win an international human spaceflight competition, its rocket motor will be more powerful than ever, according to the engine's ...

SpaceShipOne has a wingspan of 16 feet and uses one rocket engine to reach its destination altitude. Once it completes its arc, its wings fold up for the descent.

It was then released and its engine ignited to take it up through the Earth's atmosphere. Unlike last Wednesday's first X-Prize mission, however, SpaceShipOne did not experience a roll near the top of ...

Rutan designed SpaceShipOne around a so-called hybrid rocket engine, in which a tank of liquefied nitrous oxide or “laughing gas” discharges down a channel in a cylinder of solid propellant ...

SpaceShipOne ultimately could reach a speed of Mach 3.5 and, once the engine was cut off, would continue to ascend above 62 miles (100 kilometers) — the internationally recognized boundary of ...

Stratolaunch evolved from the research and development that went into the Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne, which Paul Allen had funded to the tune of $25 million in 2004.

LOS ANGELES — A giant six-engine aircraft with the world’s longest wingspan landed its first flight after some two hours in the air Saturday. The behemoth, twin-fuselage Stratolaunch jet ...

A giant six-engine aircraft with the world’s longest wingspan landed its first flight after some two hours in the air Saturday.

SpaceShipOne was to be the precursor of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, unveiled in December 2009. At about 48,000 feet, the craft would detach from its “White Knight” mothership.