Space race update (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3217961/):

"The international drive to put regular folks in outer space is moving ahead in four countries: the United States, Canada, Russia and ... Brazil?"

"Space Adventures (Brazil): Space Adventures announced today its participation in a sweepstakes sponsored by Volkswagen of Brazil. Among the 11 prizes offered will be zero-gravity airplane flights and suborbital space flights — but if you win a suborbital seat, you might have to wait until the craft actually becomes available (see X Prize, above). "Through these flights and our other programs, we at Space Adventures continue the ongoing effort to open the space frontier to private citizens," Eric Anderson, the company's president and chief executive officer, is quoted as saying. Boa sorte to our friends in Brazil."

LOL! :D :D
Is it? Really? :bugeye:

That's what the X Prize is all about - creating a commercial vehicle that can be used over and over again to transport tourists to space and back.

Probably.
I CAN'T WAIT till an X prize ship is complete! I'll buy a ticket straight away!

I think the first time I heard about this was a little over a year ago.

Here is some up to date news about it: http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/03/29/space.prize.ap.ap/

"Organizers of the X Prize believe that teams could attempt the space trip as early as this summer.

When the competition was announced just eight years ago, many were skeptical that any privately financed team could meet the requirements to collect the prize: Build a spacecraft capable of taking three passengers 62.5 miles (101 kilometers) above the planet, then make a second successful suborbital trip within two weeks.

"It's going to happen in 2004. Someone will win it," said Gregg Maryniak, director of the St. Louis-based X Prize Foundation, a group created to spark development of reusable spacecraft that can take average citizens into space."

Oh! I remember reading about that in a magazine some years ago!
But Brasil? Doing it? That's cool... :)

Go Brasil! Go!

Hexachampion!!!!!! :D :D

Don't you remember news about a rocket exploding on the launch pad in Brazil last year? 21 people died, and it put a dent in Brazil's space program.

Space.com (http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/brazil_failure_030823.html)

Don't you remember news about a rocket exploding on the launch pad in Brazil last year? 21 people died, and it put a dent in Brazil's space program.

Space.com (http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/brazil_failure_030823.html)
Huum... that's too bad... :(

But those where satellites. We are talking about something else here...

We are always trying and something always go wrong.Sounds like my life story... :D :(

Ooops! I almost signed in as "TruthSpeeker" :D :D :D

X-prize contestant; 'Scaled-Composits' succesfully completed their thirth test-flight before their spaceship will be shot into the realm of space to win the contest before Jan, 2005.

New-Mexico to host X-prize contest.