Michael Melvill
Michael Winston \"Mike\" Melvill (born November 11, 1940) is an Earthrounder 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. Melvill is the sole or joint holder of nine FAI aviation world records in various categories. Melvill was the pilot for SpaceShipOne flight 15P, SpaceShipOne\'s first spaceflight and the first privately funded human spaceflight mission to reach space, on the morning of June 21, 2004.
