My Past in Space

Supporting space flight- Titan, Delta, Atlas, Taurus and Shuttle launches- has been a major part of my career over the years.
But one of the most exciting moments for me was not related to a program/vehicle that I was working. It was witnessing the first suborbital flight of SpaceShipOne -shown in this photo at the Smithsonian.
We drove all night from Phoenix and arrived just before take off. There was a significant crowd but we were fortunate to have entry into the private area and sat right next to the designer's (Burt Rutan's) family.
And after it landed we were able to walk right out and touch the vehicle. NASA was there to congratulate the team.
It was pure magic.

"SpaceShipOne is a suborbital air-launched spaceplane that completed the first manned private spaceflight in 2004. That same year, it won the US$10 million Ansari X Prize and was immediately retired from active service. Its mother ship was named "White Knight". Both craft were developed and flown by Mojave Aerospace Ventures, which was a joint venture between Paul Allen and Scaled Composites, Burt Rutan's aviation company. The vehicle first achieved supersonic flight on December 17, 2003, which was also the one-hundredth anniversary of the Wright Brothers' historic first powered flight [also seen in the photo]. SpaceShipOne's first official spaceflight, known as flight 15P, was piloted by Mike Melvill."