Possible 60 day announcement

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3217961/

Alan Boyle over at MSNBC has an article up with info that the X-prize folks are planning an announcement for July 27th that he thinks will start the 60-day countdown. In the article he mentions that Burt Rutan and Brian Feeney (da Vinci Project leader) will both be present.

Sounds like it could be a close race, so who do you think will win?

My money (figuratively speaking) is on SS1.

GO BABY!!!!!!!...............YAHOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!.........
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Hrm.... 13 votes, and none for daVinci......

GO RUTAN!

I DEFINITELY think SS1 is it. In fact, I wonder if the way the announcement was made wasn't just to keep us on our toes. I find this quote interesting:

“representatives from major teams including Burt Rutan from the American Scaled Composites team and Brian Feeney from the Canadian da Vinci Project team will be present”.

Now, it doesn't say those are the only two teams being represented. It only says that representatives from major teams including these two teams. I'm not normally a conspiracy type person, but my guess is that they just felt like they had to mention someone else besides Rutan to keep everyone from jumping to the (correct?) conclusions. In other words, I'm thinking that the announcement will simply be Tier One's 60 day countdown. I mean, is da Vinci even CLOSE to setting up their first flight?

And how do you vote!?

*heh* I figured out how to vote. Never mind.

canadian arrow?

well, brian feeney did say something about a july 21 press announcement involving them. da vinci, and brian feeney specifically, seem to be just the right kind of crazy to trust their engineering and fly without very thorough testing.

Okay. It's obvious now to everyone that I don't keep up with all the other teams. I should retract my comments about da Vinci. They seem to be much farther along than I thought.

I'm still rooting for (and expecting a victory from) SpaceShipOne, but it's really, really cool that someone else is so close as well.

Can't wait for the 27th to hear the announcement.

I've been saying it for awhile: DaVinci was the dark horse to watch. They had money and a good design. I don't care who wins, as long as someone wins, and I hope no one gets hurt.

But you got to admit, it's funner with some competition for Scaled!

Oh yeah. I absolutely agree. Tier One is my favorite, but would I be disapointed if da Vinci won? no way I'll be celebrating my off just as if I were personally one of the team members Yes indeedy-do.

Lol, I like the pic, very useful!

I think that a Da Vinci launch would be what the industry needs. The best of luck to Rutan and all but It would be great to show that there is more than just SS1 out there.

I would feel more confident of this happening if I actually saw a picture of their vehicle though.

I read that Brian said that their system's flight profile (ballistic) is well-known so might as well go for it in their first launch.

But I don't know if they had tested the balloon of theirs.

Still, it would make for a exciting race to the finish for the X-Prize. Well funded professionals versus underdog volunteers!

From a newspaper article

"Da Vinci plans to unveil its final aircraft on Aug. 4. The team has yet to launch any test flights for its rocket, which is to be hoisted to an altitude of 80,000 feet by a giant helium balloon."

I just hope they have more luck with their giant helium balloon than we Brits have had in the past

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/3201451.stm

One possibility. Perhaps the X Prize board will arrange a final race-to-the-finish-line challenge for both Scaled and Da Vinci. Both 60 day countdowns start that day and whichever team turns around the fastest for its second flight wins. They, of course, can do as many tests as they please and can fund in the interim, so Da Vinci might try it if they were willing to take the risk that their test on August 4th will be a success. Now that would be something interesting to see.