Private rocket plane successfully punches into space

8.25am

MOJAVE, California - SpaceShipOne successfully punched beyond the earth's atmosphere on Monday in the world's first manned commercial space flight.

The privately funded rocket plane was released from a larger plane called the White Knight and ignited its rocket engine to enter space 100km above the earth.

It landed safely back at a runway in the Mojave Desert in California, about 160km north of Los Angeles.

The unprecedented US$20 ($32.30) million project was intended to demonstrate the viability of commercial space flight and open the door for space tourism.

The white rocket plane with its striking nose -- a pointed cone covered with small portholes -- was designed by legendary aerospace designer Burt Rutan and was built with more than US$20 million in funding by billionaire Paul Allen, who co-founded Microsoft Corp.

It was piloted by Michael Melvill, who after the successful flight, officially became an astronaut.

After burning its rocket for 80 seconds, SpaceShipOne spent 3-1/2 minutes at its peak altitude, a short suborbital hop that made Melvill weightless and gave him a clear view of the earth's curvature and the black expanse of outer space.

The flight marked the first time that a non-government spacecraft reached the altitude considered to be the boundary between earth's atmosphere and outer space.

Allen and SpaceShipOne's builders were widely expected to next try for the Ansari X Prize, which is US$10 million for the first team that sends three people, or an equivalent weight, on a manned space vehicle 100km above the earth and repeats the trip within two weeks.

- REUTERS