Game the World reports that SpaceshipOne's 3rd flight was successful yesterday, breaking the altitude record once held by the U.S. military's X-15 plane and winning the ANSARI X-Prize. Hats off to Burt Rutan and Paul Allen of Scaled Composites Tier One project, and to Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic airline.

Space.com has the most complete coverage, including video, an article about the roll problem we've observed in previous flights, and a note that the Canadian DaVinci Project still intends to launch.

Glenn Reynolds has been doing a lot of spaceblogging at MSNBC, and wins the zinger prize for his post yesterday:

"NASA got us to the moon in an amazingly short time. But its subsequent history demonstrates that command-style economics is a little like steroids in athletics: You get a burst of rapid growth when the drugs first take hold, but after a while you realize that your national testicles are shrinking."

Ad astra, without NASA. Let the future begin!

COVERAGE:

• April 19/03: Private Manned Spaceplane Unveiled as the craft makes its first test flight.
• Dec 18/03: SpaceShipOne breaks Mach One in a test flight.
• Juune 8/04: The system prepares for its first space flight. Go, SpaceShipOne, Go!
• June 21/04: First full flight successful!
• Sept 29/04: SpaceShipOne makes its first official X-Prize flight, and succeeds. That flight had some scary moments, though.
• Today: Mission Accomplished!