A Canadian team vying for a $10-million (U.S.) space flight prize is preparing to roll out a completed spacecraft next week and could launch within months.
The da Vinci Project team, based in Toronto, will unveil Wild Fire at a Downsview Airport hangar on Aug. 5, team leader Brian Feeney announced Tuesday.
“It's a milestone for the project,” said Mr. Feeney from Santa Monica, Calif., shortly after attending the official announcement with X Prize officials.
“It's the largest volunteer technology project in Canadian history. Maybe in any country's history,” he said.
His is one of 26 teams from seven countries competing for the Ansari X Prize. The contest will award $10-million to the first team to safely launch and return a privately developed three-person craft 100 kilometres into suborbital space twice within 14 days. The other Canadian team in the race is Canadian Arrow, based in London, Ont.
Mr. Feeney shared the spotlight Tuesday with the competition's established leaders, American Mojave Aerospace Ventures, who announced they have scheduled the first official competition flight on Sept. 29 and hope to achieve a second as early as Oct. 4.
The well-funded team is a partnership between Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and renowned aerospace developer Burt Rutan. They made history a month ago while testing their SpaceShipOne craft, making the first privately financed manned spaceflight in history. It was not an official competition flight.
Mr. Feeney wouldn't say exactly when his Canadian effort will make their first flight, but says they are competitive and he expects to be in the air by fall — depending on fundraising efforts.
“What separates us are dollars. We're measuring things hour by hour, day by day,” he said, adding financing of less than $350,000 could fire his effort into space.
“It's not about technology, not about the engine, not about the balloon. We've overcome every technological hurdle that one can do,” he said.
He's paid out only about $337,000 to get the project to this point. At the test flight of SpaceShipOne last month, Allen told reporters the cost was in excess of $20-million (U.S.).
“I've never let and will not let the lack of money be an excuse not to get this project done,” Mr. Feeney said, adding he plans to fly this fall from their chosen site near Kindersley, Sask., even if another team beats him to the prize. However, he said, additional funding would be a great help.
“We need Canada's Paul G. Allen or equivalent to step forward with less than a half a million dollars, he said.
These two competition leaders come from opposite ends of the spectrum, observed Mr. Feeney on Tuesday.
“We've got an extremely well funded team doing it ... and ‘we the people' on the other hand,” he said.
More than 600 volunteers have dedicated 150,000 man hours to his project over the past eight years — time he estimates is worth up to $15-million.
The prize is intended to usher in a new era of private space travel and tourism. It is inspired by the early aviation prizes of the 20th century, primarily the Orteig prize which was awarded in 1927 for the spectacular transatlantic flight of Charles Lindbergh in The Spirit of St. Louis.
“We are excited about the effect this can have to revitalize space in the U.S. and around the world — to make dreamers from kids and dreamers who are adults all realize that space is possible for the rest of us and not just limited to a few governments and a few very well-trained qualified astronauts,” said Peter Diamandis, chair and founder of the X Prize foundation, from Santa Monica.
“We are within arm's reach right now of the Ansari X Prize being won.”
