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The X-Prize, a $10m race to be the first private company to put a craft into space twice in two weeks, will be won soon, believe its organisers.
X-Prize chairman Peter Diamandis says it will be secured within five months.
A total of 26 teams are competing, with SpaceShipOne, an entry by aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan, considered to be the favourite to win the prize.
Other teams have already started to look at what they might do after the main challenge has been met.
Mr Diamandis was speaking at the recent 41st Space Congress held at Cape Canaveral in Florida, US.
Launch licences
The competition is to place a three-person spaceship on to a suborbital trajectory - reaching an altitude of 100km - twice in two weeks.
The first team to make such a flight will win the multi-million-dollar prize - though in reality, the entrants are likely to have spent much more to make their attempt.
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