Planet Earth from SpaceShipOne . ... Credit Copyright: Scaled Composites Explanation: On June 21st , pilot Mike Melvill made a historic flight in the winged craft dubbed SpaceShipOne -- the first private manned mission to space. The spaceship reached an altitude of just over 62 miles (100 kilometers) on a suborbital trajectory , similar to the early spaceflights in NASA's Mercury Program . ... Scheduled downtime is June 25 (6:00pm ET) through June 28 (6:00am ET). ... NASA Official: Jay Norris. ...