MOJAVE, Calif. — History was made high above the Mojave Desert (search) Monday when a rocket plane soared out of the Earth's atmosphere in the first privately financed manned spaceflight.

SpaceShipOne (search) landed safely after pilot Mike Melvill (search) aimed to fly 62 miles above the Earth. The exact altitude he reached was to be confirmed by radar later.

"The flight was spectacular," Melvill said after landing. "It was a mind-blowing experience."

For a few minutes after the ship started its descent, it was unclear whether Melvill had reached his goal. But the mission announcer finally said the flight had been successful.

"Beautiful sight, Mike," mission control said to Melvill as the gliding spaceship slowly circled toward its landing at Mojave Airport, accompanied by three chase planes.

The ship touched down to applause and cheers at 11:15 a.m. EDT.

The mothership White Knight lifted off about 9:45 a.m. EDT and took an hour to reach about 50,000 feet and release the rocket.

The rocket made an unpowered landing back at Mojave Airport after an approximately 30-minute glide.

The rocket plane was so thoroughly prepared that no work was done on it over the weekend, designer Burt Rutan said Sunday as aviation enthusiasts gathered in the Mojave Desert.

The project was funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen (search), who would only describe the cost as being in excess of $20 million.

SpaceShipOne has emerged as the leading contender for the Ansari X Prize (search), a $10 million award to the first privately financed three-seat spacecraft to reach 62 miles and repeat the feat within two weeks.

Monday's flight was not part of that competition, but Melvill was confident that the program will go on to claim the prize, which is intended to spur efforts to give the public access to space.

"I'm ready to go, boy, I am ready to go, and we are going to win the X-Prize. Put your money on it," he said Sunday.

Melvill, 62, was selected for the flight from among the project's three pilots. During a test flight last month, he flew the rocket plane to an altitude of about 40 miles.

Melvill is a test pilot and vice president-general manager at Rutan's company, Scaled Composites, which built SpaceShipOne.

He set national and world records for altitude and speed in certain classes of aircraft, and has logged more than 6,400 hours of flight time in 111 fixed-wing aircraft and seven helicopters. His test flights range from crop dusters to fighter jet prototypes and racing planes.

Originally from Durban, South Africa, Melvill and his wife, Sally, moved to the United States from England in the 1970s, and he is now a U.S. citizen. Melvill has a son, daughter-in-law and four grandchildren.

Rutan gained wide fame by designing the Voyager aircraft, which flew around the world nonstop and without refueling in 1986.

Rutan asserted that if NASA planned something like the flight of SpaceShipOne, there would be less interest.

"The significance (of SpaceShipOne) is the realization that, hey, this is for us to do now. This is not only for governments to do," he said. "... I believe that realization will attract investment and that realization will attract a whole bunch of activity and very soon it will be affordable for you to fly."