The Scaled Composites X-Prize

With Peter Diamandis, founder of the X-Prize Foundation… in the lobby of Scaled at the Mojave Space Port.

They did not allow photos indoors. We saw a demo of the pilot-training simulator of the Virgin Galactic spacecraft and a variety of composite creations. The front skid for the spacecraft is pretty interesting – instead of a wheel, they build an ablative skid pad of layers of mahogany wood. It is lighter and smaller than a traditional wheel, and provides some braking force on landing as well.