MY SPACE-BLOGGING HAS BEEN SHAMEFULLY INADEQUATE lately, but here’s a good piece on the X-Prize competition, in which people are competing for a prize for a manned private space launch:

In a race to achieve the first privately funded manned spaceflight, two teams of rocket engineers are poised to compete for the $10 million X Prize by launching people to the edge of space and bringing them back safely twice within a two-week period. Peter H. Diamandis, chairman and CEO of the X Prize Foundation, said he expects that one of the two teams will launch within the next few months.

Good news, and I wish them success.