05/17/2004: 
Technologica
'SpaceShipOne' becomes first privately funded vehicle to break through earth's atmosphere
from Independent.co.uk
A piloted rocket plane has blasted through the earth's atmosphere becoming the first privately funded vehicle to reach the edge of space.
Manned by Mike Melvill, a 62-year-old test pilot, the teardrop-shaped rocket made a 55 second climb to 211,400ft (40 miles) before free-falling to a near perfect landing at Mojave airport, about 80 miles north of Los Angeles in California.
Specially designed vertical stabilisers kept the vehicle upright as it fell, speeding across the sky at more than twice the speed of sound, also a first for a private endeavour. Describing the view from his window on a mission previously completed only by astronauts and military test pilots, Melvin said: "Watching the blue sky go completely black was the highlight of my career." Mr Rutan, renowned as a pioneer in the aerospace industry, has built numerous aircraft, including Voyager, which made the first nonstop flight around the world in 1986 without refuelling.
Previous milestones on Scaled Composites race to the X-Prize:
Scaled Composites is well on its way to winning the X Prize. Stay tuned for more on this historic event.
