Let loose from its White Knight mothership, the rocket engine propelling the experimental suborbital SpaceShipOne vehicle roared to life, skillfully controlled by test pilot Mike Melvill.

MOJAVE DESERT, California (CNN) -- Onlookers held their breath as the manned SpaceShipOne performed unexpected but spectacular acrobatics on its way into space, the first step toward winning the ...

Privately-built spacecraft SpaceShipOne has made history by becoming the first privately-built manned spacecraft to leave the Earth's atmosphere. Built by aviator Burt Rutan, the craft was ferried ...

A major turning point for private spaceflight occurred on June 21, 2004, when SpaceShipOne, the first nongovernmental crewed spacecraft, flew 62.5 miles (100 kilometers) above Earth's surface.

SpaceShipOne crossed the finish line in an 8-year, $10 million space race Monday, winning the Ansari X Prize with its second spaceflight in less than a week. Along the way, the world's first ...

Fresh from success of nudging the piloted SpaceShipOne’s nose to record-setting heights and capturing the $10 million Ansari X Prize, Rutan and his team at Scaled Composites have clearly set ...

A new coffee table book about SpaceShipOne and some of her misadventures came out recently. The book, "SpaceShipOne: An Illustrated History" chronicles Rutan's early start in aviation and how his ...

MOJAVE, Calif. – SpaceShipOne (search) is one flight away from clinching the Ansari X Prize (search), a $10 million award for the first privately developed manned rocket to reach space twice ...

MOJAVE, CALIF., June 21, 2004–Burt Rutan’s revolutionary SpaceShipOne flew into space Monday morning, becoming the world’s only successful privately funded space vehicle and making what ...

On October 4, 2004, SpaceShipOne—the first privately owned, piloted vehicle to reach space—returned from its third journey to clinch the $10 million Ansari X Prize. The prize, meant to ...