SpaceShipOne - The first privately-funded spaceflight

This is a video of SpaceShipOne’s history-making flight on June 21, 2004. On that day, SpaceShipOne became the first privately-funded craft to reach space. Mojave Aerospace Ventures, the company which built SpaceShipOne, was later awarded the first Ansari X-Prize on October 4, 2004 for accomplishing this. Mojave Aerospace Ventures was co-founded by legendary aerospace designer Burt Rutan and Paul Allen, the philanthropist, entrepreneur, and co-founder of Microsoft. The video feed is choppy at times, but it still provides an excellent POV from SpaceShipOne’s wing throughout the flight. Moments to watch for include: 1:37 - WhiteKnight releases SpaceShipOne 1:51 - SpaceShipOne fires its rocket and begins climbing to space 4:10 - SpaceShipOne reaches the apogee of its flight. Pilot Mike Melvill experiences weightlessness for three minutes afterwards. .