 |  | | | Webcast of SpaceShipOne X-Prize Attempt
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10.01.04
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The privately-funded SpaceShipOne team will attempt to win the $10 million Ansari X-prize on Monday, October 4, at 10 a.m. EDT. You can watch a webcast of the event here:
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Image left: SpaceShipOne touches down in the Mojave Desert after its historic first suborbital flight in June. Photo credit: Scaled Composites
The X-Prize offers $10 million to the first team to launch a privately-funded spaceship able to carry three people or equivalent weight to 100 kilometers, return safely to Earth and repeat the launch with the same ship within two weeks. SpaceShipOne -- designed by Burt Rutan and funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen -- made the first flight on Wednesday, September 29, and can win the prize with a successful attempt on October 4.
An archived webcast of the September 29 flight is available here:
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NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe was in the Mojave Desert, Calif., to watch SpaceShipOne pilot Mike Melvill take off and safely land on the first X-Prize attempt.
"Burt Rutan and Paul Allen and the rest of the team are great examples of the kind of determination and creativity that is helping America achieve its exploration goals," Administrator O'Keefe said. "We at NASA applaud their terrific achievement today, as well as the spirit of competition behind the Ansari X Prize. We wish Mike continued safe travels to space," he said.
From the orbiting International Space Station, NASA astronaut Mike Fincke took note of the SpaceShipOne flight. "Well, it was nice that [cosmonaut] Gennady [Padalka] and I weren't the only two humans off the planet, even if it was only for a little while," he said during space-to-ground transmissions today. "So, good job and congratulations to the SpaceShipOne team!"
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