Rutan earns spacecraft patent
April 15th, 2007
Burt Rutan has been awarded U.S. Patent 7,195,207 for his ingenious reconfigurable spacecraft. The design was successfully tested on the SpaceShipOne suborbital spacecraft where the aft wing sections and tail booms were rotated about 65 degrees upward to create a high-drag mode for reentering the atmosphere. According to the patent documents, the design is also applicable to orbital flight. Rutan’s invention provides a simple alternative to heat shields and rocket burns. With the support of billionaire Richard Branson, Rutan is pioneering space tourism from Mojave, California.
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