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Virgin Galactic
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==Aims== ===Early history and background=== The Ansari X Prize was a [[space competition]] in which the [[X Prize Foundation]] offered a [[United States dollar|US$]]10,000,000 [[prize]] for the first [[Non-governmental organization|non-government organization]] to launch a reusable [[crewed spaceflight|crewed spacecraft]] into [[outer space|space]] twice within two weeks. It was modeled after early 20th-century [[aviation]] prizes, and aimed to spur development of low-cost spaceflight.<ref name="xprize">{{cite web|title=Ansari X Prize|url=http://space.xprize.org/ansari-x-prize|access-date=2010-09-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100923001722/http://space.xprize.org/ansari-x-prize|archive-date=23 September 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref> Created in May 1996 and initially called just the "X Prize", it was renamed the "Ansari X Prize" on 6 May 2004 following a multimillion-dollar [[donation]] from [[entrepreneur]]s [[Anousheh Ansari]] and [[Amir Ansari]]. The prize was won on 4 October 2004, the 47th anniversary of the [[Sputnik 1]] launch, by the [[Scaled Composites Tier One|Tier One]] project designed by [[Burt Rutan]] and financed by Microsoft co-founder [[Paul Allen]], using the experimental [[spaceplane]] [[SpaceShipOne]]. $10 million was awarded to the winner, and more than $100 million was invested in new technologies in pursuit of the prize.<ref name="xprize"/> ===Overview of the flights to be developed=== The spacecraft initially called [[SpaceShipTwo]] was planned to achieve a [[Sub-orbital spaceflight|suborbital]] journey with a short period of weightlessness. Carried to about 16 kilometers, or 52,000 ft, underneath a carrier aircraft, [[Scaled Composites White Knight Two|White Knight Two]], after separation the vehicle was to continue to over 100 km (the [[Kármán line]], a common definition of where "space" begins). The time from liftoff of the White Knight Two mothership carrying SpaceShipTwo until the touchdown of the spacecraft after the suborbital flight would be about 2.5 hours. The suborbital flight itself would be only a small fraction of that time, with weightlessness lasting approximately 6 minutes.<ref name="Shatner2">{{cite web |title=Captain Kirk signs on for Virgin Galactic Space Ride |url=http://www.soultek.com/space_privatization/Virgin_Galactic_Captain_Kirk_and_spaceshipone.htm |publisher=soultek.com|access-date=14 February 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929175813/http://www.soultek.com/space_privatization/Virgin_Galactic_Captain_Kirk_and_spaceshipone.htm |archive-date=29 September 2007 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all}}</ref> Passengers were to be able to release themselves from their seats during these six minutes and float around the cabin.
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