The Associated Press is reporting the following this evening: a private, and 
up-to-now secret space program headed by Burt Rutan. In fact, it's so new and 
it's been kept so secret that at this moment Google doesn't even bring up any 
hits on the project. However, a photograph of the White Knight and 
SpaceShipOne can be had at:

http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/photos/images/WK%20and%20SS1%20mated%20

front%20left.jpg

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MOJAVE, Calif., April 19 (AP) -- A private manned spaceflight program was 
unveiled on Friday at a desert airport where it has been in secret 
development for two years.

The program's developer, the aircraft designer Burt Rutan, displayed a rocket 
plane called SpaceShipOne and a jet to carry it, the White Knight, in a 
hangar at Mojave Airport. Mr. Rutan is best known for creating Voyager, the 
airplane that made the first nonstop, unrefueled flight around the world, in 
1986.

SpaceShipOne, a stubby-winged aircraft built by Mr. Rutan's Scaled Composites 
LLC, is designed to carry three people to an altitude of 62.5 miles. The 
flight would be suborbital: high enough to be in space but not fast enough to 
be in orbit.

"I want to go high because that's where the view is," Mr. Rutan said. Another 
goal is to find a less expensive way to launch commercial satellites, he said.

Mr. Rutan set no date for the first flight of the rocket plane. He did not 
disclose development costs.

Success could bring Mr. Rutan the $10 million X Prize for the first private 
effort to launch three people — or one person and the weight of two others — 
to an altitude of 62.5 miles twice in two weeks.

Other teams are competing for the prize, offered by a St. Louis group called 
the X Prize Foundation, but none have offered a show like the one Mr. Rutan 
presented today. It included a demonstration flight of the jet.

Mr. Rutan's space shot would begin with SpaceShipOne attached beneath the 
White Knight, a twin turbojet that would climb to 50,000 feet.

SpaceShipOne, a graphite-and- epoxy aircraft, would ignite its rocket after 
being dropped and soar to 62.5 miles. The time from the launching to the 
landing would be about 30 minutes, Mr. Rutan said.

The White Knight made its first flight in August.

Mr. Rutan's effort is "exactly what we hoped to inspire with the X Prize," 
said Peter Diamandis, the prize's founder and chairman of the prize 
foundation's board.

Two dozen teams have registered to compete for the X Prize, which is intended 
to encourage space tourism.

Mr. Diamandis said a half-dozen teams were building hardware, and he 
predicted "four or five" test flights would be made this year.

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Wirt Atmar

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