Burt Rutan's Race to Space: The Magician of Mojave and His Flying Innovations

Years ago, Burt Rutan told a reporter for Popular Mechanics, If we make a courageous decision like the goal and program we kicked off for Apollo in 1961, we will see our children or grandchildren in outposts on other planets. Legendary science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clark would later recall Rutan s quote in a piece he wrote about SpaceShipOne and comment, Fortunately, we need not rely solely on governments for expanding humanity s presence beyond the Earth.

Burt Rutan s Race to Space showcases Rutan s herculean efforts to do just that. Smithsonian s Air and Space Museum displays his most celebrated achievements, including SpaceShipOne, which won the coveted $10 million Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight; Voyager, which hangs with SpaceShipOne in the Milestones of Flight gallery; the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer; and the VariEze. His many aerospace innovations preceding his most recently conceived designs, SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo, chronicle a progressive, step-by-step attempt to break barriers with engineering know-how and a wondrous imagination, all the while remaining on the forefront of the burgeoning private spaceflight industry. Rutan s X Prize triumph and subsequent spacecraft designs are not a beginning, nor an end, but are steps in Burt Rutan s continuing adventure to expand humanity s presence beyond the Earth and into space.