A SPACECRAFT designed to rocket wealthy tourists into space as early as 2011 was unveiled yesterday in what backers of the venture hope will signal a new era in aviation history.

Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has savoured weightlessness, flipping in the air after years of being able to make only tiny facial movements.

AN ungainly looking private spaceship blasted through the Earth’s atmosphere for a second time in a week today to capture a $10 million prize meant to encourage tourists to get out of this world.

SpaceShipOne today scooped the $10m (€8.15m) prize for the first privately-developed manned rocket to reach space twice within 14 days.