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Private manned spacecraft

MOJAVE (California): A private manned space-flight programme was unveiled at a desert airport where it has been in secret development for two years. A rocket plane, dubbed SpaceShipOne, and the White Knight, an exotic jet designed to carry it aloft for a high-altitude air launch, were shown off Friday in a hangar at Mojave Airport by famed aircraft designer, Burt Rutan, who developed the programme. Mr. Rutan is best known for creating Voyager, the airplane that made the first non-stop, unrefuelled flight around the world in 1986. The stubby-winged SpaceShipOne, built by Rutan's Scaled Composites LLC, is designed to carry three people to an altitude of 100 km. The flight would be sub-orbital: high enough to be in space but not fast enough to be in orbit. ``I want to go high because that's where the view is,'' Mr. Rutan said. Mr. Rutan set no date for the first attempt, which will come after further tests. Development costs were not disclosed.

— AP

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