Scaled Composites, LLC<br />Mojave, California<br /><br />For Details, Contact:<br /><br />Kaye LeFebvre<br />Phone: 661-824-4541<br />Fax: 661-824-4174<br />Email: info@scaled.com<br />Website: http://www.scaled.com<br /> <br />For Immediate Release: 21 June 2004<br /><br />SpaceShipOne Makes History: First Private Manned Mission to Space<br /><br />The world witnessed the dawn of a new space age today, as <br />investor and philanthropist Paul G. Allen and Scaled Composites <br />launched the first private manned vehicle beyond the Earth's <br />atmosphere. The successful launch demonstrated that the final <br />frontier is now open to private enterprise.<br /><br />Under the command of test pilot Mike Melvill, SpaceShipOne <br />reached a record breaking altitude of 328,491 feet (approximately <br />62 miles or 100 km), making Melvill the first civilian to fly a <br />spaceship out of the atmosphere and the first private pilot to earn <br />astronaut wings.<br /><br />This flight begins an exciting new era in space travel," said Paul G. <br />Allen, sole sponsor in the SpaceShipOne program. "Burt Rutan and <br />his team at Scaled Composites are part of a new generation of <br />explorers who are sparking the imagination of a huge number of <br />people worldwide and ushering in the birth of a new industry of <br />privately funded manned space flight."<br /><br />The historic flight also marks the first time an aerospace program <br />has successfully completed a manned mission without government <br />sponsorship. "Today's flight marks a critical turning point in the <br />history of aerospace," said Scaled Composites founder and CEO <br />Burt Rutan. " We have redefined space travel as we know it."<br /><br />"Our success proves without question that manned space flight <br />does not require mammoth government expenditures," Rutan <br />declared. "It can be done by a small company operating with limited <br />resources and a few dozen dedicated employees."<br /><br />A large crowd watched the momentous flight live from the grounds <br />of the Mojave Airport, joining millions of others around the world <br />who tuned in by television, radio, and the internet. Dignitaries <br />attending the event included U.S. Representative Dana <br />Rohrabacher, the Commanding Officer of Edwards Air Force Base, <br />General Pearson and the China Lake Naval Air Warfare Center, <br />Admiral Venlet; former astronaut Buzz Aldrin, and Konrad <br />Dannenberg, one of Werner Von Braun's lead scientists on this <br />country's original space development effort. Hundreds of media <br />representatives were also on hand to record history in the making.