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Starchaser space firm to open New Mexico office
Starchaser a British company that is seeking to win the $10 million Ansari X Prize purse says it will open an office in Las Cruces, New Mexico Economic Development Department Secretary Rick Homans said.

Starchaser Industries, based in Hyde, Cheshire, is looking to be the first private firm to put a reusable launch vehicle with a three-person crew 62.5 miles into space, return it safely to Earth and repeat the launch in the same vehicle two weeks later.

X PRIZE award officials say they hope the competition will spur a private space flight industry. New Mexico is hoping to become the center of that commercial space flight industry, and has already won the right to host the X PRIZE Cup, a two-week-long, annual space show that will take place in the summer of 2005.

Starchaser says it is committed to developing affordable, reusable space vehicles and that it hopes to begin launch operations in New Mexico as early as 2006. The launch operations will take place on New Mexico's 100-square-mile Southwest regional spaceport located north of Las Cruces, which is about 260 miles south of Albuquerque. Read More

Also:

Consultancy sponsors UK's "X prize" entry
Confidence at the Starchaser team has soared after they secured substantial sponsorship from Moliere Ltd to help produce the "Thunderstar" rocket they are entering in to the international "X prize".
The team has secured the cash from Manchester based computer consultant firm, Moliere Ltd, whose monies will fund the Launch Escape System (LES). The Launch Escape System will protect the crew from a variety of emergency scenarios, from a launch pad fire through all stages of powered flight. The LES is currently under construction and is a vital part of the Thunderstar rocket, Starchaser's latest hope in the race for the X prize - where the first enterprise to get a three man rocket in to space will net $10million (6.7m).

Still more sponsorship needs to be raised to help finish building the rocket.

posted by Sigurd @ 6/23/2004 06:03:00 PM