Space Ship One astronaut Brian Binnie passed away at age 69.
On April 26, 1953, Binnie was born in West Lafayette, Indiana, where his Scottish father, William P. Binnie, was a physics professor at Purdue University. When Binnie was five years old, the family moved back to Scotland and settled in Stirling before moving to Aberdeen, where Binnie’s father lectured at Aberdeen University. Binnie’s family relocated to Boston when he was an adolescent.
His family announced on Sunday that Binnie passed away on Thursday (September 15) but did not give the reason for the death.
As a naval pilot in the United States Navy for 21 years, Binnie—a graduate of Brown and Princeton Universities—flew the A-7 Corsair II, A-6 Intruder, F/A-18 Hornet, and AV-8B Harrier II. In 1988, he received his diploma from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School. Additionally, Binnie piloted the Rotary Rocket’s Atmospheric Test Vehicle.
On October 4, 2004, Brian Binnie departed in the SpaceShipOne rocket plane while serving as a test pilot for Burt Rutan’s aerospace design company, Scaled Composites (now owned by Northrop Grumman). His 24-minute flight broke the record for a winged craft set by the X-15 rocket plane in 1963, reaching a maximum height of 69.6 miles (112 km) and crossing the internationally recognised von Kármán line that separates Earth’s atmosphere from space.
Binnie entered space for the 442nd time. He was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Aberdeen in 2006.
The trip made Scaled eligible to win the $10 million Ansari XPrize, which was given to the first privately built spacecraft to make two space flights in two weeks. Test pilot Mike Melvill had flown the exact vehicle to a distance of 63.9 miles (102.9 km) on October 29. (Binnie took to the skies in the WhiteKnight mothership.)
Binnie’s net worth increased significantly during past years and would be around $ 1 million to $5 million.
Amelia Warner
Amelia Warner writes all the Latest Articles. She mostly covers Entertainment topics, but at times loves to write about movie reviews as well.
