Next story in Space

Seattle's Space Needle and the private spaceflight company Space
Adventures are teaming up to send one private citizen on a
suborbital space tourist
flight free of charge — a $110,000 value. The launch could
take place sometime in 2012, though the date hasn't been set yet.

"Space Adventures is extremely excited to partner with the Space
Needle on this campaign," said Space Adventures chairman Eric
Anderson in a statement. "It is our mission to open the space
frontier to the private sector, and there is no better way to
energize the general public, especially our youth, about space
than to offer a flight opportunity to the masses." [ Space
Tourist's Stunning Earth Photos ]

Put your name in

The sweepstakes, called Space Race 2012, officially opened Monday
(Aug.1). Contestants must enter on the Space Needle's
website by Nov. 30 to be considered.

On Dec. 1, 1,000 entrants will be chosen to move on to the next
phase, which is a competition involving video submissions. Judges
will narrow this pool of 1,000 considerably, and voting by the
general public will select a small group of finalists, Space
Needle officials said.

In 2012, those finalists will compete in a "series of challenges"
to determine the grand-prize winner, according to Space Needle
officials.

The grand prize consists of a suborbital spaceflight, up to an
altitude of about 62 miles (100 kilometers), aboard a vehicle
provided by Armadillo Aerospace. Space Adventures is selling
seats aboard an Armadillo spacecraft for $110,000, so that's
the approximate value of the prize.

Another lucky entrant will win a seat aboard the plane G-Force
One, which provides passengers with a zero-gravity experience.
That prize is worth about $5,000.

Armadillo and Space Adventures aren't the only players in the
suborbital spaceflight arena. Indeed, a
private space race seems to be developing, with multiple
firms gearing up to carry tourists and scientists to suborbital
space.

Virgin Galactic, for example, is charging $200,000 per seat
aboard its SpaceShipTwo
vehicle and should be making manned flights by next year,
company officials have said. XCOR Aerospace says its two-seat
Lynx craft should be making test flights by next fall. Seats
aboard that rocket ship will run $95,000.

And the secretive company Blue Origin, founded by Amazon.com CEO
Jeff Bezos, is developing its own vehicle, which is called New
Shepard.

The Space Needle is sponsoring the competition to celebrate its
50th anniversary, which comes next year. Space Adventures is the
only firm to have sent
private citizens to space. The company has sent seven people
on eight flights to the International Space Station, using
Russian Soyuz spaceships.

Those orbital tourists trips are much pricier than suborbital
jaunts; ticket prices for the eight flights are thought to have
ranged from $20 million to $35 million.

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