The bulbous-shaped rocket ship SpaceShipOne may have recorded the first private manned space flight on Monday, but the record-breaking attempt was hampered by potentially dangerous glitches that nearly prompted the South-African born pilot to abort the flight.
Further flights have been put on hold pending an investigation, the New Scientist reported on Tuesday.
The respected magazine said that the apparently smooth flight was dogged by some "potentially catastrophic" faults that prevented the craft reaching its planned maximum altitude.
It quoted pilot Mike Melvill as saying that a partial failure of the craft's orientation-control systems occurred near the end of the firing of the rocket's engines.
"As I came out of the atmosphere I no longer had any attitude control," Melvill told New Scientist. "If that had happened earlier, I would never have made it and you all would be looking sad right now."
Other glitches experienced during the flight included the failure of a covering that helped to streamline and hold the engine nozzles in place, and a violent lurching of the craft shortly after it was released from its mother ship White Knight.
"I was ready to hit the switch" to turn off the motor and abort the flight, Melvill said, but the craft remained steady and he was able to continue and achieve the 100km altitude that officially makes him an astronaut.
The malfunctions underscore the huge risks taken in attempting the first privately funded manned spaceflight. The ambitious attempt is estimated to have cost US$20 million, compared to the more than US$500 million it costs for a single launch of the space shuttle.
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