Posted: Wed, Jul 21, 2004, 12:21 PM ET (1621 GMT)
The X Prize Foundation, which administers the $10-million Ansari X Prize, is planning a press conference next week where one or more competing teams may announce plans to conduct flights to win the prize. The press conference is scheduled for Tuesday morning, July 27, in Santa Monica, California, according to a media advisory issued Wednesday. At the press conference "several announcements related to teams" pursuing the prize will be made. Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites and Brian Feeney of Canada's da Vinci Project are scheduled to be in attendance. Their presence suggests that either or both may make a formal announcement of plans to conduct flights to win the prize. X Prize rules require competing teams to provide prize organizers with 60-day notice in advance of any prize qualification flights. Earlier this month Mike Melvill, who piloted SpaceShipOne on its suborbital flight last month, said in a TV interview that Scaled planned to carry out its X Prize flights in late September. The prize, which expires at the end of this year, would award $10 million to the first team to fly a privately-developed reusable vehicle capable of carrying three people to 100 km twice in two weeks.

Related Links:

•  Ansari X Prize web site