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Appearance
SpaceShipOne, an experimental air-launched rocket-powered aircraft with suborbital flight capability at speeds of up to 900 m/s (3,000 ft/s), prior to takeoff during Flight 17P on October 4, 2004. Flown by Brian Binnie, SpaceShipOne reached an altitude of 112 kilometres (70 mi) and a speed of Mach 3.09. After the flight, SpaceShipOne's developers won the $10,000,000 X Prize as the first non-government organization to launch a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice within two weeks. SpaceShipOne was then retired and placed on exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.Photograph: D. Ramey Logan