Pilot Michael Mevill stands atop the plane in which he became the first non-government-funded astronaut. He’s holding a sign given to him by Arizona Libertarian Ernest Hancock: “SpaceShipOne - Government Zero.”

They’ve done it: A privately funded rocket plane on June 21 managed to escape the earth’s atmosphere by flying 62.5 miles from the earth’s surface — that’s 330,000 feet, straight up — thus becoming the first manned craft to do so without government funding.

Former Libertarian presidential candidate Barry Hess and talk radio host Ernest Hancock of Arizona were among the Libertarians observing the launch in Mojave, California — which Hancock called “an enormous, historic event” with distinctly Libertarian overtones.

“This is a whole new era in travel,” he said. “These people are sending a pilot — an astronaut — into space with zero government involvement. It’s phenomenal. We’re talking about privately funded space travel.”

The new space vehicle, which was dubbed SpaceShipOne by investor Paul G. Allen and the design team headed by aviation legend Burt Rutan, will eventually take on a new goal: Winning the Ansari X Prize of $10 million that has been promised to the first team that can send a reusable space craft with three people into orbit twice in two weeks.

It’s not about the money. As founder and chairman of Vulcan Inc., Allen doesn’t need the money. Besides, he’s spending $20 million on his private space program, so winning the X Prize wouldn’t even pay him back.

Rather, the goal is to make space travel affordable — and to prove that government involvement isn’t necessary for space travel.

As the X Prize mission statement says: “We believe that spaceflight should be open to all — not just an elite cadre of government employees or the ultra-rich. We believe that commercial forces will bring spaceflight into a publicly affordable range. We will use our best efforts to achieve this goal.”

The Libertarian Party’s presidential candidate Michael Badnarik couldn’t be at the launch because of schedule conflicts, but he agrees with many other Libertarians that the SpaceShipOne project shows that government involvement hurts private enterprise.

“We didn’t have commercial space flight until today because of government interference,” Badnarik said. “From harassing high-power rocketry enthusiasts, to trying to stop Dennis Tito’s private flight on a Russian rocket, jealous government bureaucrats have stifled innovation in space.

“SpaceShipOne’s launch shows what private enterprise can do when government gets out of the way.”

The craft is equipped with three seats and is designed to carry a pilot and two passengers, so Scaled Composites (Burt Rutan’s team) has a great head start on some of the other 26 groups trying to be first to orbit the earth.

Shortly after the craft landed, Rutan reportedly handed pilot Michael Mevill a sign that Ernest Hancock had given him, reading “SpaceShipOne - Government Zero.”

Yes, people are keeping score.

“Since Yuri Gagarin and Al Shepard’s epic flights in 1961, all space missions have been flown only under large, expensive government efforts,” Rutan said before the space attempt.

“By contrast, our program involves a few dedicated individuals who are focused entirely on making spaceflight affordable. Without the entrepreneur approach, space access would continue to be out of reach for ordinary citizens. The SpaceShipOne flights will change all that and encourage others to usher in a new, low-cost era in space travel.”

Rutan predicted that suborbital space tourism could become routine and affordable within the next 15 years, as the free market drives what he called “a space age for all of us.”