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.

For others, SpaceShipOne is their generation’s first rendezvous with space exploration. On June 21, SpaceShipOne became the first privately funded manned spacecraft to reach suborbital space ...

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.

It has been five years since SpaceShipOne screamed its way into the history books as the first privately built and financed manned craft to reach space. While that roar from the ship's rocket ...

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 ...

MOJAVE, CALIFORNIA -- Human flight took a significant step forward today as the privately built SpaceShipOne flew into suborbital space for the second time in five days, securing the $10 million ...

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 ...

(SPACE.com) -- The record-setting, privately-built suborbital rocket plane -- SpaceShipOne -- is headed for a landing at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum (NASM) in Washington ...

SpaceShipOne's Second Flight a Success NPR's Alex Chadwick talks to Day to Day technology correspondent Xeni Jardin about the second flight of SpaceShipOne, the first commercially sponsored ...

Pilot Brian Binnie stands atop SpaceShipOne, which one the $10 million Ansari X Prize by reaching space twice within the span of two weeks in 2004. Ten years ago Saturday (Oct. 4), the era of ...

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 ...