Tuesday, October 05, 2004

A private rocket ship shot into space this morning and won a coveted $10 million aviation prize for its creators.

SpaceShipOne, the sleek combination of rocket and glider designed by Burt Rutan and financed by the billionaire Paul G. Allen, reached a record altitude of 368,000 feet, or 69.7 miles, blasting past the 337,600-foot altitude reached by the same ship last week.

That feat earned Mojave Aerospace Ventures, the company formed by Mr. Rutan and Mr. Allen, the Ansari X Prize, a space competition modeled on the great contests of the early days of aviation. Members of the rocket team and organizers of the prize jubilantly predicted that the flight, made on the 47th anniversary of the first Sputnik launching, would mark the dawn of a new age of commercial human space flight.

"Ladies and gentleman, today we make history," said Peter Diamandis, the organizer of the X Prize. Mr. Diamandis called Mr. Rutan "a furry mammal among the dinosaurs of the aerospace industry."