Private spacecraft SpaceShipOne takes off from California desert
three-seat rocket plane is trying to blast out of Earth's atmosphere above the Mojave Desert today to qualify for the $10-million Ansari X Prize designed to spur commercial space travel. Riding beneath a specially designed jet, SpaceShipOne took off minutes ago. It will spend an hour climbing to about 47,000 feet, drop from the carrier plane, then fire its rocket for a brief ride into space.
