EDITORIAL ANOTHER GIANT LEAP THE FINAL FRONTIER OF SPACE TRAVEL HAS BEEN OPENED UP TO EVERYONE.

THE maiden flight of SpaceShipOne on Monday marked a giant leap toward the next era of space exploration - opening the way for ordinary people to become astronauts.

The craft, which took off from Mojave Airport on Monday and soared 62 miles above the earth, was designed and launched not by the U.S. military and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, but by private developer Burt Rutan and investors.

Despite the billions spent on space travel over the years since the first successful launch in the 1960s, the U.S. space program has made only small strides while suffering tragic setbacks.

It's appropriate - and significant - that civilians now are getting into the space business. With all due respect to NASA's amazing and eye-popping feats of space travel, the next era will rely less on the government and more on private venture. It's much like the Internet, which was created by the government, but innovated and made accessible to the masses by entrepreneurs.

For now, the average man or woman may still see private space travel as a fantastic dream, accessible only to the wealthy. That's what critics of commercial aviation said in the early 20th century. Today, traveling is generally much, much cheaper by plane than by Amtrak.

Monday's flight took us light years closer to the day - likely within the life spans of many of us - when it's as common to journey to outer space as it is to Europe.