U.S. rocket team celebrates $10-million win

Spectators cheered Monday as a privately-built rocket successfully soared to the edge of space to claim a $10-million US award.

"We are proud to announce that SpaceShipOne has made two flights to 100 kilometres and has won the Ansari X Prize," Peter Diamandis, founder of the X Prize, told reporters at Mojave airport in California. Radar confirmation is expected shortly.

Diamandis and SpaceShipOne designer Burt Rutan celebrated the win, leaping for joy as the spacecraft touched down after a smooth flight to the internationally recognized entry point to space.

To win the prize, a team had to safely complete two trips to space in the same spacecraft within 14 days while carrying the weight of three people.

With the second flight, former U.S. navy test pilot Brian Binnie, 51, and his U.S. team have clinched the Ansari X Prize, and he's earned his wings as a commercial astronaut.

"It's a fantastic view," said Binnie. "There's a freedom there and a sense of wonder that, I tell you what, you all need to experience."

The U.S. team, funded by Microsoft billionaire Paul G. Allen, took the lead in the race in June with a test flight, followed by a successful attempt last Wednesday to reach the limits of space.

The $10-million US award is modelled after the prize Charles Lindbergh won in his airplane Spirit of St. Louis for the first solo New York-to-Paris flight across the Atlantic in 1927.

Two Canadian teams were among the more than two dozen competitors vying for the international prize.

• FROM SEPT. 24, 2004: Launch of Canadian manned space mission on hold

The Toronto-based team da Vinci Project, sponsored by internet gambling site Golden Palace.com, plans to launch from a balloon in October, according to team leader Brian Feeney.

Another contestant, the Canadian Arrow team from London, Ont., is using a vehicle based on a Second World War V2 missile.

Both Canadian teams have said their goal is to develop commercial space flights.

Last Monday, Richard Branson, the head of Virgin Airlines, said his new company intends to take 3,000 people a year into space by 2006. Branson licensed SpaceShipOne's technology.