Annals of Adventure–The New Space Race: The Ansari X Prize is a $10 million reward to the first privately funded, designed and built spacecraft that can hoist a pilot and payload (equivalent to two passengers) into suborbital space and return to earth. And then, within two weeks, turn around and do it again. Last month, SpaceShipOne, designed by composite wizard Burt Rutan and backed by Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen, flew to an altitude of just over 100 kilometers to nail the first part. Now Rutan has announced that his rocketship will go for the Prize, with two flights, starting September 29. But the competition is heating up–big time. Another project, called the Da Vinci project, will be rolled out on August 5th. The Da Vinci rocket is called Wildfire and it is initially lifted into the sky by balloon. So the skies are soon to be filled with screaming rockets, straining to free themselves from Earth’s gravity, with daredevil test pilots desperately trying to get the things safely back down to the ground in one piece, so they can be torched off again just weeks later. Should be quite a show, and Space.com has all the details. And there’s a ticking clock, spurring these guys on. The X Prize offer of $10 million expires Jan. 1, 2005…



SpaceShipOne: “Hey, is that jet up our ass who I think it is? I know those guys from the Da Vinci Project are nosey but this is getting ridiculous…”