Suspended from the ceiling of the FHC’s gallery is Scaled Composites’ White Knight carrier aircraft. If you look closely, on the side is a scoreboard of sorts, exhibiting the lifting/launch missions undertaken by the airplane. Images of SpaceShipOne indicate times White Knight lifted the small spacecraft. The first time was May 20, 2003. On August 7, SpaceShipOne was released, gliding to the ground, indicated by the looping ribbon below the silhouette of the craft. As well, you can see the missions were SpaceShipOne was “feathered”—(twin tail booms folded upward.) Then, there are rocket-powered flights, starting with the December 4 horizontal attitude engine test. On the first real powered flight, December 17, the left landing gear collapsed on SS1, causing minimal damage on landing, indicated by the craft, sitting on its belly.
More powered flights followed, shown with altitudes (in thousands of feet) above each image. On June 21, 2004, White Knight launched SS1 as it completed the first manned private space flight. September 29, was the first of two X-Prize flights. The second flight, October 4, earned the X-Prize and $10,000,000.
White Knight was then used to carry and launch the Boeing X-37 Orbital Test Vehicle at Edwards Air Force Base. The first captive carry took place on June 21, 2005. The first time the craft was dropped, April 7, 2006, the X-37 was damaged upon landing, thus the image of the craft resting with no nose gear.
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