Thu Apr 8,11:34 AM ET "For the first time the government has cleared a commercial aviator to fly to the edge of Earth's orbit in an experimental aircraft that could become the model for taking tourists into space, regulators said on April 7, 2004. The Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites) issued the license for a suborbital manned flight to Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites group of Mojave, California. Scaled Composites is competing in a privately run, $10 million contest to send a reusable craft carrying three people on a suborbital round-trip. Rutan's SpaceShipOne is seen during a test flight." Photo by Reuters