1114 EDT: SpaceShipOne has landed at the airport in Mojave (CA),
followed by its mothership, White Knight and two chase planes.
ANN Publisher Jim Campbell is aboard one of the chase planes and
will report shortly.
Scaled Composite's SpaceShipOne is returning to Earth at this
hour after its 14th test flight -- an attempt at climbing to an
altitude of 62.5 miles. There's no official word from Burt Rutan's
Scaled Composites on whether the vessel actually achieved the
suborbital milestone.
Scaled Composite's Burt Rutan expects thousands of people to
swarm into the Mojave Desert Monday for his company's test-run at
the Ansari X-Prize. If all goes according to plan, SpaceShipOne
should carry one person to a height of 100 kilometers -- 62 miles
-- in a suborbital rehearsal for the $10 million prize flight.
ANN has learned that Burt Rutan has selected long-time friend
Mike Melvill, an accomplished test pilot who's been with Burt since
the days of the Vari-EZE, as SpaceShipOne's test pilot for its
first sub-orbital flight.
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