MOJAVE, Sept 29: The world's first privately manned rocket ship blasted through the Earth's atmosphere into space on Wednesday after a hair-raising corkscrew ascent on a flight aimed at capturing a 10-million-dollar prize.

Space Ship One, piloted by 62-year-old South African-born Michael Melville, reached an altitude of some 100 kilometres, organizers said, putting it halfway towards winning the prize put up by a private foundation seeking to boost space travel.

Citing unofficial radar readings, organizers said the rocket ship reached more than 102,000 metres, the edge of space and about 615 metres more than needed. To win the 10-million-dollar Ansari X Prize, a manned, reusable spacecraft must be sent into space twice in two weeks. A second flight is expected on Monday.

Dressed in a black jump suit and standing on top of the stubby rocket plane after a smooth-as-glass landing at this former US military air base in the California desert, Melville declared it a "near-perfect flight."

"Now that was fun," he said. "I really feel like I nailed it. "I was very, very pleased with how the vehicle behaved," he said, playing down the more-than-two-dozen corkscrew rolls performed near the top of the ascent.

"I wasn't worried about it," Melville said. "Probably I stamped on something too quickly and caused the roll. "A victory roll at the top is important to a pilot," he quipped.

Space Ship One designer Burt Rutan said technicians would examine the roll before going ahead with Monday's flight. "We will be analysing why we got the roll," he said. "Will it delay the flight on Monday? We don't know that yet."

Melvill said he did not expect to be at the controls for the next flight. "I'm too old to be doing this," he said. Space Ship One ignited its rocket engines after being dropped from a specially adapted jet called White Knight at an altitude of some 47,000 feet (15kms) and blasted off towards space, attaining speeds of up to Mach 3.5.

Melvill said he shut down the engines 11 seconds ahead of schedule when he realized he had reached the required altitude "with room to spare." White Knight, the jet carrying Space Ship One on its belly, took off from a Mojave Desert air base at 1411 GMT.

Space Ship One separated from the jet just before 1510 GMT, ignited its rocket engine to reach space and then glided to a landing at the air base littered with the hulks of passenger planes at 1534 GMT.

The Ansari foundation put up the 10-million-dollar prize eight years ago to give the same impetus to space travel that the Orteig prize did to inspire Charles Lindbergh's first transatlantic flight in 1927. -AFP