LOS ANGELESLOS ANGELES — Aerospace maverick Burt Rutan, who designed the historic globe-circling Voyager aircraft and the first private manned rocket to reach space, will retire next year. Rutan, 67, ...

The future looks bright for civilian suborbital spaceflight, with a host of private firms developing spacecraft to carry anyone with a willing heart and a robust bank account on the ultimate trip. One ...

Although NASA’s Project Mercury and SpaceShipOne served very different objectives, a closer look reveals that both missions were powered by equal parts of competition, innovation, and a strong dose of ...

Scaled Composites is planning changes for its SpaceShipOne rocket glider, following a pitchup incident in flight test that showed the current configuration is not safe for the planned flight to 100 km ...

Rutan said that he has continued to design new concepts as Chief Technology Officer and Chairman Emeritus of Scaled Composites. "I may design a future aircraft or two, but because of the rewarding ...

When the first American flew into space in 1961, Burt Rutan was a 17-year-old college freshman. Listening to news of Alan Shepard’s groundbreaking suborbital flight on the radio, Rutan was euphoric.

Organizers of the Ansari X Prize announced Friday that SpaceShipOne will launch as planned on Oct. 4 to seal its victory for the competition's $10 million award. The second voyage of Paul Allen's ...

Brian Binnie rides on SpaceShipOne after his flight to win the Ansari X Prize on Oct. 4, 2004. A new book chronicles the SpaceShipOne saga. Before it was ever named SpaceShipOne, the world's first ...

MOJAVE, Calif.--A venture backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen got a jump Wednesday on rivals eyeing a $10 million prize for the first privately funded junkets into space and back. A specialized ...

Part 2 explores the dramatically different approaches to the launch systems, and the surprising similarities in the factors that contributed to their success. Although they served very different ...

MOJAVE, Calif.--A venture backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen got a jump Wednesday on rivals eyeing a $10 million prize for the first privately funded junkets into space and back. A specialized ...