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SpaceShipOne lands safely in California - first private space flight
Good stuff!
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Private Rocket Plane Successfully Punches Into Space
By Reed Stevenson
MOJAVE, Calif. (Reuters) - 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 62 miles above the earth.
It landed safely back at a runway in the Mojave Desert in California, about 100 miles north of Los Angeles.
The unprecedented $20 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 $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 $10 million for the first team that sends three people, or an equivalent weight, on a manned space vehicle 100 kilometers above the earth and repeats the trip within two weeks.
 
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FLUSHED THE JOHNS!
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