WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a race to achieve the first privately funded manned spaceflight, two teams of rocket engineers are poised to compete for the $10 million X-Prize by launching people to the edge of space and bringing them back safely twice within a two-week period.
Peter H. Diamandis, chairman and CEO of the X-Prize Foundation, said he expects that one of the two teams will launch within the next few months, using rockets and spacecraft that are already being tested and prepared for the daring venture.
A Mojave Desert airport in California has already been approved for use as a launch pad for the suborbital missions.
"We expect to have a winner within the next nine to 12 months," said Diamandis in a presentation Friday to officials of the Federal Aviation Administration.
Federal officials said that the applications of the two rocket teams have already been approved by the FAA.
The teams are Scaled Composites, led by aviation maverick Burt Rutan, and Armadillo Aerospace, a Dallas group headed by John Carmack, a computer game designer who made a fortune on "Doom" and "Quake."
SEE FULL TEXT