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A privately financed rocket plane took its pilot to the edge of the Earth's atmosphere Monday, the first time a commercial venture has put a manned craft into space. SpaceShipOne landed at an airstrip in the Mojave Desert after reaching an altitude of more than 60 miles. The project is funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. NPR's David Kestenbaum reports.

A bevy of recording artists reimagined Elvis Presley's music for the new film depicting the life of the so-called "king."

Dave Smith, a pioneer of the synthesizer, revolutionized pop music in the 1980s. David Bowie and Madonna are among the legions who used his Prophet 5 synthesizer. Smith died last week at age 72.

Played on three string instruments, this music was the country's soundtrack from the turn of the 20th century to the 1940s.

The critically acclaimed rock group Band of Horses has roots in South Carolina. But the band formed, made its name and recorded its first CD in Seattle. Now its members are back in the Palmetto State, and back with a new album called Cease to Begin.

Ballet dancer Carlos Acosta is known for powerful leaps that make him seem to fly. Those leaps have earned him comparisons with Nureyev and Baryshnikov. He grew up in a poor neighborhood outside Havana. How that boy became a man who dances with grace and power is the subject of Acosta's memoir, No Way Home.

In Diary of a Wimpy Kid by author and illustrator Jeff Kinney, the most mundane details of a middle school student's life are uproarious. Kinney's illustrated diaries remind readers about the dramas of junior high.

People across the globe are turning to social media to connect with each other in new ways. Clay Shirky shows how our increasingly interconnected world is transforming news and politics as well as our roles as citizens.

Sylvan Esso's Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn break down the components of their electro-folk sound and share songs by some of the other artists who've inspired them.

Hear five pioneering examples of women who composed for and directed their own groups.