A Triumphant Test Vehicle is Celebrated in a New Gallery

SpaceShipOne didn't need NASA to get to space. 

On October 4, 2004, thousands of people gathered predawn at California’s Mojave Air and Space Port to bear witness to history—an attempt to claim the coveted $10 million Ansari X Prize. Established in 1996 to spark investment in private spaceflight, the Ansari X Prize required entrants to fly two crewed missions to suborbital space—in the span of two weeks. Just five days prior, Mojave Air Ventures’ experimental spaceplane, SpaceShipOne, had completed the first qualifying flight. Could SpaceShipOne do it again?

Moments before sunrise, the White Knight carrier aircraft took to the skies with SpaceShipOne suspended below its fuselage. An hour later, at an altitude of 46,000 feet, White Knight’s co-pilot released the spacecraft, which then ignited its rocket engine and blasted into space. Pilot Brian Binnie reached an apogee of nearly 70 miles, spending four minutes in microgravity. Back on Earth, the crowd erupted in cheers when an announcer reported the milestone. They eagerly awaited the spacecraft’s return. Binnie deployed the spacecraft’s feather system—which raised the tail booms and rear half of the wings—so that SpaceShipOne could begin its descent back to Earth as a glider. 

When the spacecraft safely touched down, it was the undisputed winner of the X Prize. SpaceShipOne had demonstrated the possibility that privately built, privately operated reusable spacecraft could reliably carry humans into space and back. SpaceShipOne marks a turning point for the commercial spaceflight industry, and its legacy continues to shape access to space today. 

Visitors to the National Air and Space Museum’s transformed Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall, which opens July 28, will have an opportunity to view SpaceShipOne as it was configured during spaceflight. The spacecraft is displayed nose down with the feather at 65 degrees—just how it looked as it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere. (SpaceShipOne became part of the Museum’s collection in 2005, and it has been displayed in various configurations since then.)

For its technical achievement and role in transforming human spaceflight, SpaceShipOne is one of my favorite artifacts. But there is another reason it is so special. It represents, to me, the very best of what the Museum’s experts do, from collecting to collections care, artifact conservation, and display. 

In March 2024, I had the privilege of observing the massive effort to deliver SpaceShipOne to the Museum in Washington, D.C., so that it could be reinstalled in the Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall. In the early morning hours of a chilly and drizzling day, members of the move team coordinated transportation from a storage facility at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, to the Museum in D.C., some 30 miles away. 

Led by Stephanie Stewart and Anthony Carp, the team included members of two Museum units: collections processing and preservation and restoration. The team members’ specialized training, years of experience, and creativity provided the foundation for the delicate task. I was awed by their carefully choreographed, precision movements when transporting the nearly 27-foot-wide spacecraft from the Museum’s west terrace to the Milestones of Flight Hall. 

Over the course of a few hours, I watched magic unfold that was years in the making. Long before the move, the Museum’s conservation and preservation staff had cleaned and stabilized the spacecraft (after it had been removed from public display in 2022). Once SpaceShipOne had safely transited from the Museum’s west end to the Milestones of Flight Hall, the rigging specialists set about suspending the 2,408-pound spacecraft from the ceiling. 

SpaceShipOne also highlights the ways that museums continuously study their objects and expand their collections. A year after SpaceShipOne arrived at the Museum, now-emerita curator Valerie Neal acquired the flight gear worn by pilot Mike Melvill during the first of the two X Prize qualification flights. His flightsuit, helmet and oxygen mask, gloves, and boots enable us to document and interpret the vital role of test pilots in the development of experimental spacecraft.   

In fall 2023, I had the privilege of collecting a collage of photographs and artifacts related to SpaceShipOne. Michael Mills, photographer at Scaled Composites, the firm that built SpaceShipOne, created and cherished this collage. It included photographs of pilots Melvill and Binnie with their wives Sally and Bub (respectively), as well as mementos, including an empty package of M&Ms, which Melvill had used as a zero-G indicator on the first qualifying flight. 

The collage helps us appreciate the work of photographers in recording aerospace history. It was Mills’ photography that publicized SpaceShipOne’s feats, enabling people around the world and throughout time to learn about this inventive program. 

When SpaceShipOne returns to display on July 28, I hope the Museum’s visitors will think about all the stories embodied in this impressive piece of technology, from its brief but bold flying career to its second life as a treasured artifact.

Emily A. Margolis is the National Air and Space Musuem's curator of contemporary spaceflight. 

This article, originally titled "SpaceShipOne Dazzles in Washington," is from the Summer 2025 issue of Air & Space Quarterly, the National Air and Space Museum's signature magazine that explores topics in aviation and space, from the earliest moments of flight to today. Explore the full issue.

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