Space Ship One

Words and Music © 2003 Mark E. Horning

 

Strum, reasonably fast, 4/4 Time, Capo 2

 

 

Chorus:

        Am                    C                 G           Am

Did you hear they're building spaceships, in the California sun?

Am            C                   G               Em

Reliable, and cheap to build, the race is all but won.

    Am                G                  F              Em

The doubters they can stay behind, their day is all but done,

    Am             G/    Em/     Am

The rest of us are going to the stars.

 

     Am             C             G                   Am

They built her as a secret, but I know they built her well,

         G              Am         G            Am

and have laid up carbon fiber in a strong epoxy shell.

 Am          G                   F               Em

Aluminum and fiberglass make her light enough to sail,

        Am             G              Am/   G/       Am

and she rides a hybrid rocket with no turbo-pumps to fail.

 

Oh she's built by Scaled Composites, and good old Burt Rutan,

and if anyone can do it, well I know that those folks can.

And they built her under budget, with no taxpayer funds.

The first truly private spacecraft, so they call her Space Ship One.

 

Rpt Chorus

 

High above the desert, at Edwards AFB,

The X-15 broke through the sky, the black of space to see.

And 40 odd years later, in those self-same very skies,

A rocket-powered ship will roar, as through the sky she flies.

 

Bridge: C G                  Dm

A hundred years since Kitty Hawk,

    C                Dm

And Will and Orville Wright.

          G           Dm

She's the greatest aviation jewel,

     F          E

in a century of Flight.

 

Well I know she won't make orbit, but she's over half way there.

And once you are in orbit, you're halfway to anywhere.

Give them another decade; they'll build cities on the moon.

It's time to start a planin', 'cause the future starts real soon.

 

Rpt Chorus

 

    Am                G/    Em/     Am

Pack your bags; we're going to the stars.