SpaceShipOne on Display at Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum

SpaceShipOne was formally donated to the Smithsonian in a ceremony in Washington D.C. today. It now hangs between Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis and Chuck Yeager's Bell X-1.


Burt Rutan and Paul Allen were on hand at the ceremony. If you don't know what SpaceShipOne is and why it belongs in the NASM, consider this:

Like many space entrepreneurs, Rutan thinks the private sector can do what NASA cannot: inspire tomorrow's astronauts and scientists by offering them the real promise of a trip to space.
There are signs that SpaceShipOne's historic suborbital flights marked the dawn of a new space age.
Of the 26 teams that entered the Ansari X Prize competition, 10 are now viable companies, according to Ian Murphy, spokesman for the prize's successor, the X Prize Cup.
Rutan has a deal with British entrepreneur Richard Branson, chairman of the Virgin Group, to build a fleet of five spacecraft. The new company, Virgin Galactic, will take passengers on 2 1/2-hour trips into space for $200,000 each.