As not totally unexpected, to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the Wrights' first flight, SpaceShipOne lit its hybrid rocket engine in flight for the first time and busted the mythical sound barrier today. A friend of mine, Brian Binnie, was the pilot, and I'm glad to see that he's finally getting a chance to fly a rocketplane.

It's a significant event, though it would have been better had they been able to go into space. It will be interesting to see if mainstream media picks up on it.

[Update before bed]

CBS covered it, but there was no tie-in to the Wright anniversary, and much focus on the landing-gear problem.

I channel-surf a lot on the radio, but I'm pretty sure it was part of the top-of-the-hour ABC radio news update at 6PM pacific -- just a few seconds, following the Wright Brothers report. Might have been general news on KBFK 1530, but I think it was the national broadcast.

Your article in Foxnews was the first mention of it that I've seen. I've been checking Scaled's website daily for flight test results and overlooked the news announcement. If I were a betting man, I'd place a large sum on Scaled winning the X-prize, and a side bet that it will occur 1Q 2004.

The Washington Post covered it, noting the anniversary and ignoring the landing gear:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9681-2003Dec17.html

Well I thought this was very exciting news - it would be interesting if you could report what the pilot thought about the flight.

I read in one report that this was the highest a rocket plane has flown since the X15's were flying. That has to make you weep thinking of the lost opportunities ...

This is huge, and it shames NASA horribly. Given the current state of the space program and this stunning acheivment, there is no reasonable excuse for NASA to not turn around the space program and regain some of the ground that has been lost streching out the life span of the space shuttle program.

I hope, too (as you might expect), that the military is paying attention to this. I can't fathom them not being keenly aware of the potential represented here. Private enterprise has led the way in ingenious innovation in the past and it did again yesterday. Now all it needs is a retractable docking port that fits the ISS. ;-)