(In honor of Sputnik's 50th anniversary, we present a selection of manned spacecraft. Please vote for your favorites!--The Editors of SPACE.com)

The only privately-developed spacecraft to carry a pilot to suporbital space, SpaceShipOne made three successful flights in 2004. Built by aerospace visionary Burt Rutan and financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, the spacecraft won the $10 million Ansari X Prize. An evolved version, SpaceShipTwo, will serve as the foundation for Virgin Galactic's fleet of suborbital space tourism vehicles.