A piloted rocket plane has blasted through the earth's atmosphere to become the first privately funded vehicle to make it into space.

Manned by Mike Melvill, a 62-year-old test pilot, the teardrop-shaped rocket made a 55 second climb to 211,400 feet or 40 miles before free-falling to a near perfect landing at Mojave airport, about 80 miles north of Los Angeles in California.

SpaceShipOne is the brainchild of Burt Rutan, the designer of Voyager, which made the first non-stop flight around the world in 1986 without refuelling.

Previously two private individuals have managed to reach space: Santa Monica businessman Dennis Tito and South African Mark Shuttleworth.