This book chronicles the development of the world's first commercial manned space program. With ample illustrations, photographs, and behind-the-scenes information, SpaceShipOne takes readers from the project's 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. Author 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.

This book chronicles the development of the world's first commercial manned space program. With ample illustrations, photographs, and behind-the-scenes information, SpaceShipOne takes readers from the project's 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. Author 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.