Space race starts today

A test pilot in a stubby rocket plane will try to climb more than 60 miles over California’s Mojave Desert and punch through the atmosphere today in the first stage of a quest to win a €8m prize meant to encourage space tourism.

SpaceShipOne, which in June became the first private, manned craft to reach space, was to make two attempts to rocket through the atmosphere in six days, less than half the 14 day span allowed under Ansari X Prize rules.