MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

SpaceShipOne Wins $10 Million Prize with Flight.

The world's first privately funded manned spacecraft soared through the blue fringe of Earth's atmosphere to the blackened frontiers of space on Monday for the second time within a week to win a $10 million prize designed to spur commercial space travel.

SpaceShipOne, a stubby, three-seat rocket plane about the size of a minivan, hurtled to a height of 368,000 feet traveling at more than three times the speed of sound and surpassing its target altitude without the heart-stopping barrel rolls that vexed the craft's qualifying flight on Wednesday.

"We are proud to announce that SpaceShipOne has made two flights to 100 kilometers (62 miles) and has won the Ansari X Prize," Peter Diamandis, founder of the X Prize, announced to reporters at Mojave airport.

The craft safely glided back to the Mojave Airport for a textbook landing, greeted by cheers from thousands of spectators gathered beside the runway.

Brian Binnie, the 51-year-old former Navy pilot who was at the controls, emerged from the craft's side hatch onto the tarmac where he was met by his wife.

Also present were aircraft designer Burt Rutan, Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen, who financed the venture at a cost of between $20 million and $30 million, and British entrepreneur Richard Branson, who has licensed the SpaceShipOne design for a series of future commercial passenger flights.

"It's a fantastic experience. and it culminates when the motor shuts down and you realize you are no longer encumbered," said Binnie, describing the weightless moment in which the spacecraft soared beyond the bounds of Earth's gravity.

"There's a freedom there and a sense of wonder that, I tell you what, you all need to experience," he said.

The X Prize, aimed at encouraging the development of civilian space travel in a reusable craft that can be turned around quickly, was offered for the first nongovernment team to fly three people, or the equivalent weight, to at least 62 miles in altitude and do it again within two weeks.

SpaceShipOne's flight on Monday reached an altitude of 69.7 miles, nearly 8 miles above the internationally recognized boundary between the Earth's upper atmosphere and space.

The carrier aircraft, White Knight, ferried SpaceShipOne to about 50,000 feet and then released it for its roughly 80-second rocket-fueled stab through Earth's atmosphere. SpaceShipOne then arced back toward Earth in a long, spiral glide.

SpaceShipOne is powered by a hybrid fuel composed of nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas, and tire rubber -- a mix believed to be less volatile, and thus safer, than the propellant used by NASA's space shuttle. Instead of heat shield tiles, the craft is equipped with a feathered wing system that prevents overheating by slowing its re-entry.

Binnie became only the second civilian pilot to obtain his astronaut's wings. The first was Mike Melvill, who flew the first successful qualifying flight of SpaceShipOne on Wednesday that was marked by a series of unplanned vertical rolls.

The X Prize was founded in 1996 by Diamandis, a space enthusiast, in the hope that it would spur a commercial space travel industry.