Space Tourism: A Brief History

Abstract

October 4th, 2004—a historic event is taking place at Mojave Airport, a sprawling civilian test center in the California high desert 150 kilometers from Los Angeles, where hundreds of rusting aircraft, their engines and undercarriages shrink-wrapped, sit parked in lonely rows. But, on this Monday morning, the motley collection of DC10s, 747s, DC9s, and 737s will bear witness to a truly extraordinary event. Here, at this desolate airport, a small, winged spacecraft built with lightweight composites and powered by a rocket motor using laughing gas and rubber will fly to the edge of space and into the history books. Registered with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) only by the anonymous designation N328KF, but known to space enthusiasts as SpaceShipOne (SS1) and its carrier vehicle, WhiteKnight, this privately developed manned vehicle (Figure 1.1) will finally open the door for a much greater portion of humanity waiting to cross the threshold into space.

“Today we have made history. Today we go to the stars. You have raised a tide that will bring billions of dollars into the industry and fund other teams to compete. We will begin a new era of spaceflight.”

Peter Diamandis, shortly after SpaceShipOne landed