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October 21, 2006

SpaceShipOne Mystery Solved

Michael Arrington

49 comments »

Late last night I posted on a rumor that Google had acquired SpaceShipOne and was putting it in building 43 at Google HQ in Mountain View. More information started coming in immediately from commenters. One reader emailed to tell me Larry Page is on the Board of Trustees of the X Prize foundation (SpaceShipOne won their challenge), establshing a connection. But other commenters sent in recent pictures of SpaceShipOne at the Smithsonian in Washington DC. My source was good, but it was clear there was more to the story. To solve the mystery I said I’d send an iPod Shuffle to the first person that took a picture of the ship today and sent it to me.

Thanks to readers, I now know the rumor is false. Google did not acquire SpaceShipOne. But they did acquire a full scale replica of the ship and have indeed installed it in building 43 at Google. We have video of the actual ship today at the Smithsonian (see below), as well as two independent photographs of the replica at Google HQ. We’re sending all three people iPod Shuffles. Congrats to Chris Seline at Searchles (video of actual ship), Karl D (replica pictures - top left and bottom) and Willard McClellan (replica picture - top right). My favorite picture is this one, showing the crane they’ll use to get the replica ship into Google. Also see here and here. The video and pictures are below.

By the way, if you’d like to get your own full scale replica of SpaceShipOne, you can.

I love the Internet.


  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 21st, 2006 at 3:55 pm and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Trackbacks/Pings (Trackback URL)

  1. Has Google acquired SpaceShipOne? at Ministry of Tech

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  2. Techcrunch » Blog Archive » Google Acquires SpaceShipOne?

    October 21st, 2006 at 5:56 pm

  3. All the good stuff is on other blogs « Scobleizer - Tech Geek Blogger

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  4. TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » GoogleのSpaceShipOneミステリー、真相はこうだった

    October 21st, 2006 at 7:12 pm

  5. Google Acquires SpaceShipOne « Aleem’s Weblog

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  6. SpaceShipOne Mystery Solved « Digged Stories

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  7. Freakitude Technology Blog / Spaceshipone Mystery Solved

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  8. Google Reader « Hoffbauer

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  9. Google’s spaceship | Bakkel dot com

    October 22nd, 2006 at 5:19 am

  10. ClickFraud Under the Spotlight at The Blog Herald

    October 22nd, 2006 at 9:31 am

  11. Blogrolle.net : Aufzug zum Mond

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  12. EveryDigg » Blog Archive » SpaceShipOne Mystery Solved

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  13. Remainders: 10/22/06 at The Blog Herald

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  14. Basement Tapes » SpaceShipOne Mystery Solved

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  15. Rakesh Agrawal’s Blog » Michael Arrington is just trying to increase his readership

    October 23rd, 2006 at 7:51 am

  16. ¿El SpaceShipOne en el Googleplex? » Internet Marketing Mexico

    October 23rd, 2006 at 1:28 pm

  17. The Google Gospel (blog) » Blog Archive » SpaceShipOne

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  18. Space Ship One: Dein eigenes Raumschiff - Ausgefallene Geschenkideen

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Comments

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  1. Markus

    October 21st, 2006 at 4:04 pm

    Say what you want about google, these guys are brilliant at building morale and making it a awesome place to work!

  2. Eric Willis

    October 21st, 2006 at 4:06 pm

    Putting a replica of SpaceShipone in my letter to Santa as we speak.

  3. Mike

    October 21st, 2006 at 4:09 pm

    Can you say Enron 2.0?

  4. dumbfounder

    October 21st, 2006 at 4:36 pm

    The Internet loves you back, Mike.

    Chris Seline (aka dumbfounder)
    http://www.searchles.com/

  5. Jack Arrington

    October 21st, 2006 at 5:03 pm

    The one hanging in the Smithsonian seems kind of pristine, to have gone into space and returned. Are you sure its not the replica and Google has the real one, finally restored to ‘like new’ condition?

  6. dumbfounder

    October 21st, 2006 at 5:42 pm

    It was actually dented up pretty badly, but you just couldn’t tell from the crappy video I took.

  7. Eddie

    October 21st, 2006 at 6:50 pm

    This just in: Google has installed a pencil sharpener in Room 254. I can barely believe it myself. What could this mean?

  8. ffextensionguru

    October 21st, 2006 at 6:59 pm

    What could it mean?

    Google had to cut their office supply budget (no more mechanical pencils) after buying You Tube and SpaceShipOne.

  9. Michael Arrington

    October 21st, 2006 at 7:00 pm

    This sounds like a compelling story. I’m on it.

  10. Michael Tanne

    October 21st, 2006 at 7:28 pm

    Another twist to the mystery?

    If you look at the registration number on the photo in front of Google HQ it is N328KF. According to the FAA registry this is serial number 001 of Scale Composites’ SpaceShipOne.

    Also if you look at the following photo which I took minutes after its maiden flight the numbers match.

    So this is the original (Photos of the second flight have the same registration number on them. So which one is in the Smithsonian?

  11. Michael Tanne

    October 21st, 2006 at 7:31 pm

    Here’s a link to photos of the original:

    SpaceShipOne after first flight.

    SpaceShipOne just before second flight.

    The replica must be bearing the same registration numbers as the original.

  12. Karl D

    October 21st, 2006 at 7:43 pm

    I went back after my first posting. Just as I was arriving, I saw SpaceShipOne launched up and over Building 43!

    It went over the building and onto a second story scaffold. It was lowered onto heavy-duty dollies and rolled into the hole in the side of the building

    I added 3 pix on Flickr

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/59666465@N00/

    And 4 or 5 videos on YouTube. They’re short and low-res taken with my CoolPix 3100. (the 5th one is currently having trouble uploading on my @#$#% Earthlink DSL line)

    Start with this one, then look at the others under my UserID

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQrKWUuZP_g

    Thanks for being generous with the iPods!

    Karl

  13. Irving

    October 21st, 2006 at 8:12 pm

    I think it’s a stunt set up by the producers of the movie “The Prestige” ;-)

  14. rulepark

    October 21st, 2006 at 8:12 pm

    Too much to spend on a toy, too little to afford a mechanical pencil. Google are really a place to work in.

  15. Drew Olanoff

    October 21st, 2006 at 9:21 pm

    In a turn of events, the YouTube fellas just bought the real SpaceShipOne, and picked up Larry’s lunch bill for the next year.

    Kidding. Man, I love the tubes!

  16. Kent's Imperative

    October 21st, 2006 at 10:50 pm

    Exceedingly interesting… The event is a case study of journalism and the new media. There are lessons here for other organizations…

    http://kentsimperative.blogspo.....ntury.html

  17. Rodney Rumford

    October 22nd, 2006 at 8:06 am

    It is always interesting to see the wisom of the crowds and the reporting that takes place once a rumor is in motion in the blogosphere. Mystery solved, and some nice supporting pictures to boot.

  18. Guigo

    October 22nd, 2006 at 8:07 am

    if we look at this “toy” a bit more seriously, who knows, Google might enter cheap space flight business one day ;) at least, Google has the power to promote these things on enormous scale, take the Google’s solar thingee they just did..

  19. carl rahn griffith

    October 22nd, 2006 at 8:50 am

    but, erm, why?

    this makes the indulgent decadence (re: acquiring arts-world trinkets) of the investment banks seem positively rational by comparison.

    wonder whose budget it comes from?

    sums google up really, along with the current dot.com-esque boom we are experiencing - only the nouveau riche can do things as crass as this.

  20. carl rahn griffith

    October 22nd, 2006 at 8:52 am

    ps, it’s not even a real ’spaceship’ and nor are those on board true ‘astronauts’ … how appropriate.

  21. Ken

    October 22nd, 2006 at 10:22 am

    Oh man…to turn that into a go-cart…

  22. Alexa

    October 22nd, 2006 at 10:45 am

    Ok…now I *really* have to work there. My favorite art in my living room is a copy of the X-Prize poster signed by the artist, Pat Rawlings, when the X-Prize was first announced years ago. I can see why Google added the replica as it’s just inspiring to be working along on projects and look up and remember that hey, we are just at the beginning of space exploration and new ideas *are* possible!

    Congrats…..

  23. Erik

    October 22nd, 2006 at 1:37 pm

    This a fine thing to spend money on when you PE is 67 and a market cap of $140 billion.

    Of course if the PE drops to something more normal investors might see this as a bit of a boondoggle.

  24. Kat

    October 23rd, 2006 at 1:28 am

    Michael Tanne, re the registry number…. It would not be a replica if it did not replicate the registry number on the side. The replica hanging at Meadows Field Airport in Bakersfield, CA also has the registry number. There’s another replica at a museum in Wisconsin which also has the registry number. Nothing to see here. Move along.

  25. GoogleFan

    October 23rd, 2006 at 8:50 am

    Oh i see….:)

  26. google X

    October 23rd, 2006 at 10:23 am

    Oh, now I see where the micro-kitchen budget has gone to.

  27. einer

    October 23rd, 2006 at 5:32 pm

    how many buildings does googleplex have there???

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