SpaceShipOne Takes X-Prize

By David Kestenbaum

Published October 3, 2004 at 9:00 PM PDT

SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded rocket plane to complete two trips to the edge of space within a two-week window. The feat makes the craft the apparent winner of a $10-million award known as the X-Prize, designed to encourage space tourism. Hear NPR's David Kestenbaum.

U.S. Headlines

David Kestenbaum

David Kestenbaum is a correspondent for NPR, covering science, energy issues and, most recently, the global economy for NPR's multimedia project Planet Money. David has been a science correspondent for NPR since 1999. He came to journalism the usual way — by getting a Ph.D. in physics first.

See stories by David Kestenbaum