CMA Presents "Looking Down. . .Looking Way Down"
Been to space lately? Interested in going? Private astronaut Brian Binnie knows what it's like!
On October 4, 2004, he piloted Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne vehicle 112 km into space, winning the X-Prize — a competition that offered $10 million to the first privately funded team to build a spaceship and fly it on two consecutive flights to above a 100-km altitude while carrying three adults.
Come hear Brian recount some of the challenges faced by the SpaceShipOne team as they persevered to beat the odds and win the X-Prize, breaking aviation records in the process. He will also discuss exciting new work under way at Scaled Composites, and how it may impact you and your children's outlook on the transcending experience of space travel.
Brian Binnie is a Program Business Manager and Test Pilot at Scaled Composites. His degrees include a B.S. in aerospace engineering and an M.S. in fluid mechanics and thermodynamics from Brown University and an M.S. in aeronautical engineering from Princeton University. He is a graduate of the U.S. Navy's Test Pilot School in Patuxent River, Maryland, and the Naval Aviation Safety School in Monterey, California. A member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, he has been a test pilot for 21 years and has logged over 4600 hours of flight time in 59 different aircraft.
Admission is free. All JPL and Campus personnel and retirees are welcome. Information: (818) 354-9273 or [email protected].