U.S. Rocket Launch Spurs Canadian's Hopes

SpaceShipOne made history yesterday and soared more than 62 miles above Earth's surface during its brief flight. This feat makes SpaceShipOne the first privately built manned craft to fly in space. But SpaceShipOne isn't the only ship in town. SpaceShipOne and others are competing for the X Prize and we have an entrant in our own backyard. Before summer is out we may be in the right place to watch a test flight or so ourselves from out on our own beachfront as this news article reports on the progress of the Canadian Arrow.

Geoff Sheerin is equally enthusiastic about his company's efforts to launch its first manned flight, even though SpaceShipOne appears to have a leg up in the international Ansari X Prize competition. The competition offers a $10-million US prize to the first team to safely launch and return a privately developed three-person craft 100 kilometres into sub-orbital space twice within 14 days.

Sheerin believes space tourism isn't too far off. Canadian Arrow has already opened the world's first private training school for astronauts and space passengers, and has designed its own lightweight spacesuits. The Canadian Arrow Space Centre, a 2,300-square-metre facility in London, Ont., contains an astronaut training centrifuge, flight simulator, recovery training course and ground school.

Canadian Arrow plans to launch test flights of its spacecraft later this summer from a site near Lake Huron, with manned flights to follow.