Rutan's SpaceshipOne Hits 200,000 Feet

An anonymous reader writes "Burt Rutan's privately-built SpaceshipOne is one step closer to winning the X-Prize after zooming to what witnesses say was somewhere around 200,000 feet on only its third powered flight. (See also the partial update from Scaled Composites.)"

Comments

Re:Does anyone know?

[Lagrange5]

That's ok though, each team: Scaled, Armadillo, XCor, DaVinci, etc. is approaching things differently, so who knows we might end up with a heterogenous and competitive rocket industry.

And that should be the point. If the Rutan/Scaled team achieve their goal, that doesn't mean the other teams should roll up their tents and go home. The real goal is a vital, innovative rocket industry that pushes the boundaries for future space travel. It would be great to see every team achieve the 100 km goal, no matter who does it first or even last.