On May 5, 1996, to celebrate the anniversary of Alan Sheppard's suborbital flight, the X Prize Foundation announced the Anseri X Prize, $10 million for the first private team to build and fly a spacecraft capable of carrying three people 100km above the earth and then repeating the flight within two weeks. A team headed by aerospace designer Burt Rutan and financier Paul Allen built SpaceShipOne, which won the prize on Oct. 4, 2004. Pilot Mike Melvill celebrates the victory.
Talkback
