Two Danish space enthusiasts have failed in their first attempt to send a privately built rocket into space, a media report said Monday.

Their spokeswoman, Sophie Dalgaard, says a fuse problem stopped the launch of the 30-feet rocket from a barge near the Baltic Sea island of Bornholm, the Daily Mail reported.

She says they will try again but did not say when. Danes Peter Madsen and Kristian von Bengtson are behind the 35,000-pound project.

They have permission to try and launch the rocket from a military test zone until Sep 13. They had hoped the 1.6-tonne prototype would reach about 30 km into the sky.

The launch was the first step toward their dream of eventually flying to the edge of space.

A mission statement on their website says: 'This is a non-profit suborbital space endeavour, based entirely on sponsors and volunteers. Our mission is to launch a human being into space.

'We are working full-time to develop a series of suborbital space vehicles - designed to pave the way for manned space flight on a micro size spacecraft.

'The mission has a 100 percent peaceful purpose and is not in any way involved in carrying explosive, nuclear, biological and chemical payloads.

'We intend to share all our technical information as much as possible, within the laws of EU-export control.'