X Prize contestant suffers setback

A team that had developed a low-cost suborbital rocket suffered a setback Sunday when a test vehicle exploded 1,000 feet in the air. The rocket, Rubicon 1, was built by Seattle-based Space Transport Corp. at a cost of $20,000.



Space Transport Corp. is a contestant for the X Prize, which will be awarded to "the first organization to successfully launch a privately financed, reusable craft that makes a suborbital flight 62 miles high twice within two weeks while carrying a pilot and weight equivalent to two other people." SpaceShipOne became the first private manned craft to make a suborbital flight this past June.



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