The new race to space is steaming full speed ahead as competition grows within the X Prize family. Canada’s first entrant–The da Vinci Project–was approved July 17.

Bran Feeney, the solo pilot for the project said, “The da Vinci Project’s mission is to encourage all Canadians to explore and discover.”

The da Vinci Project will launch its spacecraft from a hot air balloon. The 5,500-pound rocket will be tethered 1,000 feet below the 25-story balloon and lifted over the course of an hour to an altitude of 40,000 feet.

Feeney estimates that the project will cost approximately $5 million and take approximately 18 months to complete. Construction of the spacecraft began this summer and testing of the spacecraft’s propulsion systems could begin as early as fall 2000.

This announcement followed the successful launch by Starchaser Industries of a two-stage rocket to test the launch escape system for the Thunderbird vehicle, its official entry to win the X Prize.

The launch was carried out at Morecambe Bay in the United Kingdom. Steven Bennett, CEO of Starchaser Industries, said the company is moving forward to launch the first manned rocket in 2001 and follow it up with a three-passenger crew by August 2003.

“I think Bennet’s success is motivating the other teams to do their hardware demonstrations within the next twelve months,” Peter Diamandis, X Prize founder and president, told SPACE BUSINESS NEWS. “In addition, the X Prize is good for space business as a whole because it offers entrepreneurs an alternative financing venue, may make aerospace sexy again for investors and overall ignite interest in our industry again.”

The X Prize competition is offering a $10 million purse to the first privately funded team that builds and launches a spacecraft capable of carrying three people to space on two flights within two weeks.

“Our next step is to raise the remainder of the purse [more than half of the $10 million has already been raised], encourage teams from Europe and Asia to join and I am confident we will have a winner by 2003,” Diamandis added.