Mike Melville
Mike Melvill Melvill receiving the first commercial astronaut wings Commercial Astronaut Nationality South African / American Born Michael Winston Melvill (1940-11-11) November 11, 1940 (age 74) Johannesburg, South Africa Other occupation Test Pilot Time in space ~10 mins Selection SpaceShipOne 2003 Missions SpaceShipOne flight 15P, SpaceShipOne flight 16P 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.