| As the world's first privately funded rocket plane is being readied for a run at making history by climbing out of earth's atmosphere, its builders are already eyeing their next goal: winning a $10 million prize for pioneering commercial space flight. The SpaceShipOne project, backed by Paul Allen, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft Corp., and aviation expert Burt Rutan, will send a rocket plane 100 kilometers, or 62 miles, into the air and back down again in California's Mojave Desert on June 21. If all goes well, they are expected to announce their next goal after that flight, the Ansari X Prize, which is offering $10 million to the first team that sends three people, or an equivalent weight, on a manned space vehicle 100 kilometers above the earth and repeats the trip within two weeks. |