ANOTHER X-PRIZE CONTESTANT:

TORONTO (Reuters) – A Canadian team of aspiring astronauts has set an Oct. 2 launch date for the country’s first manned spaceship, as it tries to win a $10 million prize set up to spur commercial space travel. . . .

Unveiling an unfinished version of their rocket, the Wild Fire, at a former air force base in Toronto on Thursday, the da Vinci Project said the craft will launch from the small town of Kindersley in the western province of Saskatchewan. . . .

More than 20 teams are competing for the Ansari X Prize established in 1996. The prize will go to the first team that sends three people, or an equivalent weight, into space, safely returns them, and repeats the entire venture within two weeks.

This is excellent news.