Canadian Venture Shoots for Passenger Space Flights by 2007

A Canadian contender for last year's X Prize may be ferrying paying passengers into suborbital space by mid-2007. PlanetSpace uses a rocket called the Canadian Arrow, and is backed by Indian-American entrepreneur Chirinjeev Kathuria, who previously backed efforts to extend the life of the Russian Mir space station.

Canadian Arrow did not actually compete for the X Prize because it was not completed in time. However, its core technology is about as mature and stable as it gets -- it's based on the German V2 rocket of World War II.

PlanetSpace's current plan is to take passengers 70 miles up on a 15-minute ballistic flight, giving them several minutes of weightlessness and a spectacular view of the earth. Fares would start at $250,000, which would include 14 days of pre-flight training.

Source: MSNBC