SpaceShipOne pioneers, engineer Burt Rutan and Microsoft co-counder Paul Allen who provided the finance, were waiting on the runway at Mojave in California as South African Mike Melvill landed the rocket-plane in the Californian desert.

The craft was launched from a jet at an altitude of 15 kilometersfeet).

Its engine ignited and it went above 100 kilometers (62 miles) into the fringes of space before returning to Earth, the mission control said.

SPACE.WIRE