This is one of 10 uncirculated $2 bills that made both of the historic SpaceShipOne flights to claim the Ansari X-Prize, and establish SpaceShipOne as the leading private space craft vehicle. This particular bill (serial number I15894613A) took part in the first flight (X-1), which took place on Septebmer 29, 2004, with Astronaut Mike Melvill as the pilot. During a 24 minute and 11 second flight, Mike and Tom flew at the speed of Mach 2.92 and reached an altitude of 102.9 km in space. This very same bill was then flown on October 4, 2004 during X-2, by Astronaut Brian Binnie at the speed of Mach 3.09 and reached 112 km in space during a 23 minute and 56 second flight. With this second successful flight, Mike, Brian and Tom won for Scaled Composites the coveted Ansari X Prize, and forever placed them in the history books of manned space flight.
No comments:
Post a Comment