BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Date set for space prize attempt
The view from SpaceShipOne in space The team behind the private spacecraft, SpaceShipOne, says it will attempt the Ansari X-Prize in two flights on 29 September and 4 October. The $10m (£5.7m) prize awards the first team to send a three-person craft over 100km, and repeat the feat in the same craft within two weeks.SpaceShipOne, built by aviation pioneer Burt Rutan, became the first private manned craft to go to space in June.
Another 25 teams across the world are competing for the prize.
Marvellous news - good luck to the team I hope its successful. I also see that there is a UK based team trying for the prize too. Starchaser Industries - great name! Anyway fingers crossed!!!
After SP34, my hosting company updated Perl, MT-Blacklist stopped working. What a nightmare! Luckily managed to find a fix and its back. So spammers go elsewhere and leave me alone.
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Nasa set to revisit Mercury
More news of Solar System visits: Nasa plans to launch a new probe to Mercury.
Messenger (short for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) will conduct an in-depth study of Mercury in its entirety. Carrying seven scientific instruments, it will provide the first images of the whole planet.It will also collect information on the composition and structure of Mercury's crust, its geological history, the nature of its thin atmosphere and magnetic field, and the make-up of its core and polar materials.
This of course is in addition to the Beppi Collumbo collaboration between Europe and Japan due for launch early in the next decade. Exciting stuff!