This collection of entries is from June 21, 2004.
The first privately financed rocket ship to enter space returned to Earth in California. This was pretty cool to watch on CNN. They didn't know if they made it or not because the engine shut off by itself instead of being shutdown by the pilot. Then on the way down, the pilot (Michael Melvill) heard a big bang. There was a large dent in the engine faring, so they'll have to figure that out. I guess later in the day the FAA awarded their first civilian astronaut wings to Melvill. Apparently this flight had nothing to do with X-Prize - they didn't have any ballast for passenger weight or any actual passengers, so I guess this was just a real test to see if they could hit altitude, which was radar verified.
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