SpaceShipOne half way to the X-Prize

SpaceShipOne reached outer space for the second time this morning, in the first officially recorded flight of two required to win the Ansari X Prize.

SpaceShipOne designer Burt Rutan said controllers had asked [astronaut Michael] Melvill to shut the engine down early because of [a] rolling problem, but Melvill kept going until he was certain he would reach the target altitude.

Another pilot with two big brass ones. Hat's off to Mike Melville.

There's some background information on this on one of my pre-blog web pages. Click here.