By Dan Linehan, Foreword by Sir Arthur C. ClarkePaperback, 9.5 x 10.875
160 pages, 283 color photos, 12 diagrams
ISBN: 978-0-7603-3988-6
$24.99 / $27.99 CAN / £16.99
"Dan Linehan’s in-depth, up-close-and-personal accounts in SpaceShipOne: An Illustrated History give readers a ringside seat to history. Enjoy, learn, but most of all marvel at this world-changing step in the expansion of human beings off our home planet!”
—Rick Searfoss, Colonel, USAF (Ret.), former astronaut/Space Shuttle Commander,
Ansari X Prize Chief Judge
In April of 2003, a company called Scaled Composites lifted the veil of secrecy from a longtime research program and introduced SpaceShipOne to the world. And the age of commercial space travel took off…like a rocket.
A story almost too ambitious to believe, the story of SpaceShipOne combines the adventurous spirit of Charles Lindbergh, the entrepreneurial drive of Howard Hughes, and the urgency of the space race at the height of the Cold War.
SpaceShipOne: An Illustrated History chronicles the development of the world’s first commercial manned space program—a program that includes an airborne launcher (the White Knight), a space ship (SpaceShipOne), rocket propulsion, avionics, simulator, and full ground support. Packed with more than 230 photos, illustrations, exclusive diagrams and interviews with the individuals who made air-and-space history happen, SpaceShipOne provides a full picture of this classified project—from the conception and design to the deals that brought together Scaled Composites’ Burt Rutan and Virgin Airlines’ Sir Richard Branson to the plans for building a fleet of commercial suborbital spaceships and launch aircraft.
Aviation and aerospace writer Dan Linehan, who was there at the launch, lets readers in on the drama and details behind the making of spaceships that will take twenty-first-century tourists to the final frontier. Along with the story of the development, testing, and launch of SS1, Linehan also details how the SS1 crew captured the Ansari X Prize, the highly coveted space competition in which the X PRIZE Foundation offers a ten million dollar prize for the first non-government organization to launch a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice within two weeks.
Featuring a foreword from science fiction legend Sir Arthur C. Clarke (his last commissioned written work) and a never-before-seen cockpit diagram, created especially for this book, identifying all seventy of SpaceShipOne’s instruments and controls, this book is the ultimate resource for anyone who has ever dreamed of strapping in and taking off into the final frontier.
About the Author
In 2004, former engineer Dan Linehan attended the launch of SpaceShipOne when it captured the Ansari X Prize. His most recent book, Burt Rutan's Race to Space, picks up both before and after the the monumental success that was SpaceShipOne. Linehan’s job as a freelance writer takes him around the world and allows him to explore. His publications range from poems about fishermen in local newspapers to articles about superconductors in scientific journals. In addition, Dan has consulted as a senior science editor for educational publishing companies since 2003. He has a strong interest in environmental issues and enjoys many forms of writing. Dan lives in Monterey, California.
