A CALIFORNIAN aerospace company plans to enter the space tourism industry with a two-seat rocket ship capable of suborbital flights to altitudes more than 37 miles above the Earth.

A rocket plane soared out of Earth’s atmosphere over California’s Mojave desert today in the first privately-financed manned space flight.

Aviation enthusiasts gathered in the Californian desert today hoping to see the first flight into space by a privately-developed manned rocket.