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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.

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.

In her new book The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science, author Natalie Angier says science doesn't have to be impossible, impenetrable or uncool.

Singer Amy Lee says she's equally inspired by metal and classical music, and that the two aren't all that different.

NPR's Scott Simon talks with Swedish pop singer Tove Lo about love, marriage, attention-seeking behavior, and her newest album, "Dirt Femme."

Hayley Williams was just a teenager when her band Paramore became a pop-punk favorite – now in her 30s, Paramore is back with an album that shows pop/punk can age gracefully. It's called This Is Why.