SpaceShipOne undergoing preflight inspection before its June historic space flight. The registration number designates its goal: 328,000 ft altitude, or 100km (62 miles). SpaceShipOne completed a May 13th, 2004 test flight in which pilot Mike Melvill reached a height of 211,400 feet (approximately 40 miles), the highest altitude ever reached by a non-government aerospace program. Sub-orbital space flight refers to a mission that flies out of the atmosphere but does not reach the speeds needed to sustain continuous orbiting of the earth. The view from a sub-orbital flight is similar to being in orbit, but the cost and risks are far less.
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Image Credit: Scaled Composites, LLC
