Name: Black Sky: Winning the X Prize
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2004-10-07
Rating: 7.7
Cast: Paul Allen, Tom Bales, Jim Benson

This is a great behind-the-scenes look at the SpaceshipOne prize-winning flights

This documentary is about the two final flights of the Burt Rutan rocket-plane flights which both broke the 100 km. altitude barrier and thereby won the X-prize. It is a great, exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at events.

The documentary is the sequel to "Black Sky: The Race for Space", which tells the story of the development and test flights of SpaceshipOne. The Discovery Channel film crew that made both documentaries got exclusive access to the project, and it certainly shows that nothing was hidden to them.

Presented in a quick almost music-video-like pace, the documentary doesn't delve into much technical detail, but rather goes for an emotional impact, through the interviews with the protagonists: engineers, pilots, their families and Mr. Rutan himself. With great frankness they discuss their aspirations and fears, and really manage to transmit the entrepreneurial spirit and "frontier" mentality that was the backbone of the project. Also, the fears of the relatives of the test pilots come through in some rather emotional parts of the documentary.

The SpaceshipOne flights looked rather effortless on TV, but here we get to see that, well, it wasn't all that simple to strap a big huge rocket to the back of a man, and propel him into the stratosphere! Cockpit views during flight makes it clear that it took a lot of guts to get into SpaceshipOne, a real pilot's plane with only the minimum of instrumentation to keep it light. There were some harrowing moments during the flights, and it is all told in nail-biting detail.

For an exciting and touching documentary about the SpaceshipOne prize-winning flights, this is the one to watch.

The documentary is a form of non-fiction storytelling that aims to present factual information, insights, and perspectives on real-world subjects, events, issues, or people. Documentaries can cover a wide range of topics, including history, science, culture, social issues, nature, biographies, and more.

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The intimate, behind the scenes story of how Burt Rutan and the SpaceShipOne team overcome the obstacles and brave the dangers of space flight to claim the $10 million dollar X Prize.

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Black Sky: Winning the X Prize

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