Peter Siebold

Who is Peter Siebold?

Peter Siebold is a member of the Scaled Composites astronaut team and was one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the experimental spaceplane developed by Scaled Composites. On 8 April 2004, Siebold piloted the second powered test flight of SpaceShipOne, flight 13P, which reached a top speed of Mach 1.6 and an altitude of 32.0 kilometers.

Siebold holds a degree in aerospace engineering from California Polytechnic University; a design engineer at Scaled Composites since 1996, Siebold was responsible for the simulator, navigation system, and ground control system for the SpaceShipOne project.

Although he was one of four qualified pilots for SpaceShipOne, Siebold did not pilot the craft during the flights later in 2004 to meet the requirements of the Ansari X Prize. Although Siebold flew SpaceShipOne to an altitude of 32 km, he did not cross the 100 km Kármán line -- the international standard for reaching space.

For his contribution to the project, Siebold, along with Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie, received the 2004 Iven C. Kincheloe Award presented by the Society of Experimental Test Pilots. He won the award a second time in 2009, this time individually.