Mike Melvill
| Mike Melvill | |
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Melvill receiving the first commercial astronaut wings
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Commercial Astronaut
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| Nationality | South African / American |
| Born | Michael Winston Melvill November 30, 1940 Johannesburg, South Africa |
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Other occupation
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Test pilot |
| Hilton College | |
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Time in space
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~10 mins |
| Selection | SpaceShipOne 2003 |
| Missions | SpaceShipOne flight 15P, SpaceShipOne flight 16P |
Michael Winston "Mike" Melvill (born November 30, 1940 Johannesburg ) is a world-record-breaking pilot and one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the experimental spaceplane developed by Scaled Composites. Melvill piloted SpaceShipOne on its first flight past the edge of space, flight 15P on June 21, 2004, thus becoming the first commercial astronaut and the 434th person to go into space. He was also the pilot on SpaceShipOne's flight 16P, the first competitive flight in the Ansari X Prize competition.
Mike Melvill grew up in Durban, South Africa and attended Hilton College.
In 1978, he met aerospace designer and Scaled Composites founder Burt Rutan when he flew to California to show Rutan the VariViggen he had built at his home. Rutan then hired him on the spot. In 1982, he was named Rutan's lead test pilot.
In 1997, Melvill and Dick Rutan, Burt's brother, flew two Long-Eze aircraft that they built side-by-side around the world. This "around the world in 80 nights" flight was called The Spirit of EAA Friendship World Tour, and some legs of it lasted for over 14 hours.
Later in his career he became Vice President/General Manager at Scaled Composites.
Melvill is the sole or joint holder of nine FAI aviation world records in various categories.
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Wikipedia