A privately-financed rocket ship has reached a record altitude of 65 kilometers (40 miles) during a test flight, its US makers announced Friday.SpaceShipOne, with Mike Melvill as pilot, was carried Thursday from a base in California's Mojave desert up to about 16,000 metres (53,000 feet) on the back of an airplane and then launched, said its designer, Scaled Composites.
It safely returned to Earth after making its record breaking flight to the edge of space.
No private manned craft has ever reached such an altitude.
The project is now considered a frontrunner to win the 10 million dollar prize for the first privately funded space vehicle that can carry two passengers and a pilot to an altitude of 100 kilometers (62.5 miles) twice in two weeks.
The Ansari X Prize has been offered by the X Prize Foundation, a US-based group, in a bid to encourage widespread space travel. About 25 teams from seven countries are said to be in contention.
The backers of the prize include Dennis Tito, an American businessman who was one of only two private individuals to go into space, the author Tom Clancy, and Erik Lindbergh, grandson of pioneer aviator Charles Lindbergh.
SpaceShipOne is designed by Burt Rutan, whose aim is to develop a rocket that can take tourists into space. The company hopes to offer a round-trip space trip for about 100,000 dollars by about 2020.
It has now carried out three test flights. One December 17, it breached the sound barrier. The second flight was on April 8.
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Nov 02, 2006
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