posted 09-28-2014 07:06 AM               

Space Cover #284: SpaceShipOne Takes the X-Prize

With the latest revelation that SpaceShipTwo would not make its first commercial flight until early 2015, I reflected back on SpaceShipOne and realized that we are coming up on the 10th anniversary of SpaceShipOne making two flights into space within a week and winning the Ansari X-Prize. These two flights took place on September 29, 2004 and October 4, 2004 (see postmarked cards above) over Mojave, CA.

The two cards above were hand canceled at Mojave for their respective flight. The Sept 29 card was autographed by Burt Rutan, the designer of SpaceShipOne. And the October 4 card was autographed by both Rutan and Brian Binnie, the pilot of the October 4 flight. And both cards were among the 199 sets of cards carried onboard SpaceShipOne on the October 4 flight. These cards were prepared and certified as flown by Tonya Rutan, Burt’s wife. They were sold as a set, along with the similar card postmarked for the June 21, 2004 first civilian flight into space, which was also flown on the October 4 flight (below).

I believe that the set of three sold for $75 back then, but have lost that documentation. If any of you have other information on these, please post!

At the time of these flights, it was thought that the follow-on SpaceShipTwo would be carrying passengers into space in just a few years. Now ten years later, the SpaceShipTwo team has found out how difficult passenger-carrying spaceflight can still be...