SpaceShipOne: An Illustrated History - Softcover

This book chronicles the development of the world’s first commercial manned space program. With ample illustrations, photographs, and behind-the-scenes information, SpaceShipOne takes readers from the project’s conception and design to the deals that brought together Scaled Composites’ Burt Rutan and Virgin Airlines’ Sir Richard Branson to the plans for building a fleet of commercial suborbital spaceships and launch aircraft. Author Dan Linehan, who was there at the launch, lets readers in on the drama and details behind the making of spaceships that will take twenty-first-century tourists to the final frontier.

“While some five hundred people have been to space, only three have actually flown themselves there. SpaceShipOne: An Illustrated History puts you behind the wheel of the ‘Mach 3 Ferrari’ known as SpaceShipOne and describes the challenges of hand-flying the rocket to the edge of space and back again—a journey that pushed our small team to its limits to solve the demands of performance and precision for crossing the tightrope of spaceflight.”

—Brian Binnie, SpaceShipOne test pilot and astronaut

“It was an incredible privilege for me to lead the Ansari X Prize judging team and witness the phenomenal vision, design genius, technical skill, and focused teamwork required to actually send SpaceShipOne on its winning flights. Dan Linehan’s in-depth, up-close-and-personal accounts in SpaceShipOne: An Illustrated History give readers a ringside seat to history. Enjoy, learn, but most of all marvel at this world-changing step in the expansion of human beings off our home planet!”

—Rick Searfoss, Colonel, USAF (Ret.),

former astronaut/Space Shuttle Commander,

Ansari X Prize Chief Judge

Packed with more than 230 photos, exclusive diagrams, flight logs, and interviews with the individuals who made air-and-space history happen, SpaceShipOne: An Illustrated History provides the full scope of drama behind the achievement of a true aviation milestone, on par with the Wright Flyer, the Spirit of St Louis, and Apollo 11. SpaceShipOne is the first of a new breed of spaceship, ushering in a “sub-orbital personal spaceflight industry” that will soon take twenty-first century tourists to the final frontier.