Updated 10:13 a.m., Sept. 30

WASHINGTON (AP) _ In a race to achieve the first privately funded manned spaceflight, 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 a team will launch within the next few months, using rockets and spacecraft that are already being tested and prepared for the daring venture.

A Mojave Desert airport in California is being considered for use as a launch pad for the suborbital missions.

``We expect to have a winner within the next nine to 12 months,'' said Diamandis in a presentation Friday to officials of the Federal Aviation Administration.

There are 23 other registered groups from seven countries competing for the $10 million cash prize. There are teams from Russia, United Kingdom, Romania, Israel, Argentina and two from Canada. The rest are headquartered in the U.S.

Diamandis said the goal of X Prize is to promote commercial human spaceflight, just as prizes offered early in the 20th century jump-started the aviation industry. For instance, Charles Lindbergh made the first solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927 while competing for a $25,000 aviation prize, he said.

Lindbergh's flight, said Diamandis, ``was a mind-shift breakthrough'' for the public. Within 18 months after that daring flight, the number of people boarding airlines rose from 5,700 a year to almost 200,000.

Demonstrating that private companies can build and fly spacecraft can be a major step toward making human spaceflight as routine flying on an airliner is now, he said.

``The flood gates will open when a group of private people can plan on going some place in space,'' said Diamandis. He said earlier prizes opened ``the golden age of aviation'' and with private firms racing to reach space ``it's happening again, right now.''

The X Prize contest calls for launching a manned craft to 62 miles, generally considered the cusp of space, and returning it safely to Earth. And then doing it again within 14 days. The craft must be able to carry three people, although the contest rules permit contestants to use one pilot accompanied by equipment equal to the weight of two people.

Diamandis said the craft will not go into orbit and will not fly far from its launch site. But it will graze space, giving an orbit-like view of the Earth and perhaps brief moments of weightlessness. The whole adventure would probably last about 15 minutes.

Yet, Diamandis said market surveys suggest that there are about 10,000 Americans who would spend up to $100,000 for such a space adventure.

``Think of it as barnstorming'' but with a $1 billion market, he said, referring to the 1920s practice of freelance pilots who charged a fee for airplane rides.

Asked about the risk involved, Diamandis didn't pull punches in his talk to FAA officials.

``People may die,'' he said. ``This is dangerous stuff.''

But Diamandis argues that taking such risks is a basic human right that the government should honor.

``They should have the right to risk their own lives for something they believe in,'' he told government executives whose jobs include aviation safety. American was settled by pioneers who chose to risk all for new land or to explore the unknown, he said, and without such a spirit humans will always be Earthbound.

``We are living in a risk-averse society and giving birth to the space travel industry is very difficult under those circumstances,'' said Diamandis.

The X Prize is financed by private donors. The list of supporters includes Dennis Tito, an American who spent $20 million to fly on a Russian craft as history's first space tourist, Erik Lindbergh, a pilot and grandson of Charles Lindbergh, former astronaut and U.S. Senator John Glenn, and movie actor Tom Hanks.

First USA Bank donated $1 million, as did the New Spirit of St. Louis Organization, a descendent of the group that sponsored the trans-Atlantic flight by Charles Lindbergh in 1927.

Editor's Note: In the original version of this story, the Associated Press reported erroneously that the Federal Aviation Administration had approved a Mojave Desert airport as a launch site for suborbital manned space missions and that the agency had approved applications from two teams of rocket engineers. FAA officials said that although applications have been filed and are being considered, formal approvals have yet to be issued for either the airport or the rocket teams.