August 27, 2023
On this date in 2003, the private spacecraft SpaceShipOne, built by Burt Rutan’s company, Scaled Composites, performed its second glide test flight. SpaceShipOne would go on to win the Ansari X-Prize by becoming the first non-government organization to launch a reusable crewed spacecraft into space twice within two weeks.
Burt Rutan standing on top of SpaceShipOne. Image credit: Michael Mills/Scaled Composites