On 21 June, SpaceShipOne kissed the edge of space. In doing so, it became the first privately funded craft to carry a person into space, and its pilot Mike Melvill became the first to earn astronaut wings while flying a civilian vehicle. The thousands who witnessed the flight got a glimpse of a commercial future for space flight. SpaceShipOne is the first fully reusable space vehicle designed for routine, regular flights. The hope is that it will lead to a sharp fall in the cost of space exploration and research, opening up new vistas for both science and commerce. The craft's designers even dream of making tourist flights above the atmosphere commonplace.
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