Richard A. Searfoss - Civilian Space Projects

Civilian Space Projects

After leaving NASA, Searfoss served as a judge for the Ansari X-Prize, where he officially declared SpaceShipOne to have won the competition on October 4, 2004 after completing two flights within a two week period.

Searfoss is a test pilot instructor at the National Test Pilot School at the Mojave Spaceport.

Searfoss is one of two test pilots qualified to fly the XCOR Aerospace EZ-Rocket. He also served as XCOR's only test pilot for a rocket-powered prototype racing aircraft. He has a total of 52 rocket-powered flights and is the world's only tri-qualified rocket pilot (Space Shuttle, EZ Rocket, Rocket Racer prototype).

Most recently, in 2008, he was a featured guest in a Volkswagen commercial, where he argued with a black Beetle about who has more engineers between Volkswagen and NASA.

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