“SpaceShipOne was a suborbital air-launched spaceplane that completed the first manned private spaceflight in 2004. That same year, it won the US$10 million Ansari X Prize and was immediately retired from active service. Its mothership was named “White Knight”. Both craft were developed and flown by Mojave Aerospace Ventures, which was a joint venture between Paul Allen and Scaled Composites, Burt Rutan's aviation company. Allen provided the funding of approximately US$25 million”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A chase plane follows SpaceShipOne after it reached a height of 62 miles in the first non-governmental flight to leave the Earth's atmosphere on June 21, 2004 in Mojave, California. SpaceShipOne spacecraft was carried to a height of 50,000 by the twin-turbojet high-altitude research aircraft, “White Knight”, where it was launched for its final climb. The space effort was funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and headed by aerospace engineer Burt Rutan. (Photo by Jim Campbell-Pool/Getty Images)

Descendants of American Southerners Wearing Confederate-era dresses and uniforms dance during a party to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the end of the American Civil War in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, Brazil, Sunday, April 26, 2015. For many of the residents of Santa Barbara d'Oeste and neighboring Americana, in Brazil's southeastern Sao Paulo state, having Confederate ancestry is a point of pride and is celebrated in high style at the annual “Festa dos Confederados”, or “Confederates Party” in Portuguese. (Photo by Andre Penner/AP Photo)

“Environmental Migrants: The Last Illusion” by photographer Alessandro Grassani, documents the life of people in Kenya, Mongolia and Bangladesh who migrate to escape environmental stresses to the city of their own countries in hopes for a better life. Here: Asia, Mongolia, March 27, 2011. A view of Ulaan Baator over the shoulder of a slumbering drunk. Alcoholism is a huge problem in the city, home to almost half of Mongolia's people. The capital's population has doubled in the past two years. High levels of unemployment and poverty await herders who abandon rural areas and arrive in the city, illiterate and untrained in any skills necessary for urban jobs. (Photo by Alessandro Grassani)

Ultra- trailers compete at sunrise on September 2, 2017 in Courmayeur, Italy, during the 15 th edition of the Mount Blanc Ultra Trail (UTMB), a 170 km race around the Mont Blanc crossing France, Italy and Switzerland. The 15 th Ultra- Trail du Mont- Blanc (UTMB) is a mountain ultramarathon with numerous passages in high altitude (>2500 m) and in difficult weather conditions (night, wind, cold, rain or snow). (Photo by Jeff Pachoud/AFP Photo)

From Tibetan monks playing basket ball with ice thawing high up in the Himalayas, to the pollution that hides behind the Taj Mahal, here’s pick from 60 exceptional environmental photographs, by photographers and filmmakers from 70 countries, that will go on show at the Royal Geographical Society in London from 29 June to 21 August. The winners will be announced on 28 June. Here: Gravel Workmen of Chittagong, Bangladesh, by Faisal Azim. Gravel workmen look through a glass window at a gravel-crushing yard in Chittagong. Full of dust and sand, it is an extremely unhealthy environment for working, but still hundreds of people work here for their livelihoods. (Photo by Faisal Azim/2016 Atkins CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year)

This undated image provided by World View shows World View capsule and balloon spacecraft that will rise to 100,000 feet above Earth for passengers to see the curvature of the planet and the blackness of space. Space tourism companies are employing designs including winged vehicles, vertical rockets with capsules and high-altitude balloons. While developers envision ultimately taking people to orbiting habitats, the moon or beyond, the immediate future involves short flights into or near the lowest reaches of space without going into orbit. (Photo by World View via AP Photo)

A debutante from a local academy looks at her mobile phone as she waits to take part in the Vienna Ball at the Kempinski Hotel, March 19, 2016, in Beijing. The ball, which is an event organized by the luxury Kempinski Hotel chain and the City of Vienna, brings together both Chinese and foreign members of the capital's elite class. Despite a slowing economy, private wealth has soared in China after decades of rapid growth. A record number of high net worth individuals and families has fuelled a market for luxury goods, services, and events catering to China's burgeoning elite class. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

A stuffed rabbit doll sits among children's beds standing in the abandoned kindergarten of Kopachi village located inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone on September 29, 2015 near Chornobyl, Ukraine. Kopachi, a village that before 1986 had a population of 1,114, lies only a few kilometers south of the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant, where in 1986 workers inadvertantly caused reactor number four to explode, creating the worst nuclear accident in history. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)