Flight 17P of SpaceShipOne was a spaceflight in the Tier One program that took place on October 4, 2004. It was the second competitive flight in the Ansari X Prize competition to demonstrate a non-governmental reusable crewed spacecraft, and is hence also referred to as the X2 flight. It was a successful flight, winning the X PRIZE. Crew Scheduling To win the X PRIZE, a spacecraft needed to make two successful competitive flights within 14 days. SpaceShipOne made a successful competitive flight on September 29, 2004, and so needed to make a second by October 13, 2004, in order to win. Scaled Composites aimed to be able to fly three times within the two weeks in order to allow for a failed flight. The date of the flight, October 4, 2004, was the 47th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth and the same day astronaut Gordon Cooper died. SpaceShipOne's first powered flight was, in a similar vein, on the 100th anniversary of the first ever powered flight by the Wright Brothers. The da Vinci Project, another X PRIZE contender, planned to make its first competitive flight on October 2, 2004, which might have caused a race to develop, affecting the scheduling. However, they encountered problems and had to delay their flights. Tier One was therefore able to follow their original flight schedule. Scaled Composites reported that they could have turned the spacecraft around faster than the five days they actually allowed for it. It was anticipated by observers that Mike Melvill, the pilot on both previous spaceflights by SpaceShipOne, would pilot this flight also. This expectation was not supported by any real evidence, but was based on Melvill's prior experience. On the morning of the flight it was announced that Brian Binnie would be the pilot. Manifest Under Ansari X PRIZE rules, the flight was required to carry 180 kg payload, to simulate two 90 kg human passengers. Whereas Scaled Composites stated that the first competitive flight would not carry passengers, it did not make any such statement about later competitive flights. It seemed possible that Burt Rutan would be a passenger on flight 17P, but in the end he was not, since the FAA had restricted the flight to just the pilot and no passengers. The payload included: X PRIZE flight monitoring equipment, known as the "gold box" the Explorers