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SpaceShipOne Soars Out of Earth's Atmosphere

By David Kestenbaum

Published June 21, 2004 at 12:00 AM EDT

SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded rocket ship to carry a human into space. The craft took off from the Mojave Desert Monday morning, carrying one civilian test pilot. The spaceship appears to have soared 62 miles high -- past the official mile marker for the lower edge of space --though the exact altitude has yet to be confirmed. Hear NPR's David Kestenbaum.

David Kestenbaum

David Kestenbaum is a correspondent for NPR, covering science, energy issues and, most recently, the global economy for NPR's multimedia project Planet Money. David has been a science correspondent for NPR since 1999. He came to journalism the usual way — by getting a Ph.D. in physics first.

See stories by David Kestenbaum