Eventually, the company plans to launch its privately funded rocket from the world's largest hot air balloon.
"This rocket combines ingenuity with imagination and represents one giant step towards realizing our ultimate goal -- affordable space travel," said Brian Feeney, who will pilot the team's space vehicle to a minimum altitude of 62 miles (100 kilometers).
Named after the Italian artist who designed the first aircraft, the project will cost about $5 million and will take about 18 months to complete from start to finish, Feeney said.
Engine and guidance systems tested
The prototype is 24 feet (7.3 meters) long and weighs about 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms). Since entering the X PRIZE last summer, the da Vinci Project has completed a final flight test of the rocket's engine and flight guidance systems in California.
This represents the first successful testing of propulsion and flight guidance systems at near gross weight of any X PRIZE competitor, said da Vinci Operations Director Marc De Jordy.
"Support for this Canadian initiative is overwhelming," De Jordy said. More than 10,000 volunteer hours have helped with the project. "Momentum is building as we enter the next phase of our mission."
Balloon launch, 'ballute' landing
Ultimately, the 5,500-pound (2,500-kilogram) rocket is designed to be tethered 1,000 feet (300 meters) below a 25-story balloon and lifted over the course of an hour to 40,000 feet (12,190 meters). A 10,000-pound thrust, liquid oxygen-kerosene engine then will fire and the rocket will fly away at an angle to clear from the balloon.
The spacecraft then will rise vertically to its apogee of 74 miles (120 kilometers) in space, eventually reaching Mach 4 or 2,650 miles (4,265 kilometers) per hour.
A "ballute" will protect and stabilize the rocket on reentry. A flyable parafoil will be deployed between 25,000 and 10,000 feet (7,620 and 3,050 meters) and the rocket will descend under control, guided by GPS, to a predetermined landing zone somewhere in western Canada.
Inspired by Lindbergh
Gregg Maryniak, executive director of the X PRIZE Foundation, praised the da Vinci Project's fast progress. "They are positioning themselves as a leader in the emerging space tourism and space flight industry," he said.
The X PRIZE is modeled after the $25,000 Orteig Prize, which inspired Charles Lindbergh to cross the Atlantic Ocean on his 1927 New York-to-Paris flight. Erik Lindbergh, a grandson of the historic aviator, is a board member of the foundation offering the prize.
The development of a partially or completely reusable launcher could revolutionize space transportation by making flights to space more affordable. Today, most payloads are launched by costly throwaway rockets, which evolved from missile technology used during the Cold War. The price tag for such boosters costs anywhere from $10 million to $800 million a launch.
The goal of the X PRIZE is to stimulate the creation of a new generation of launch vehicles designed to carry passengers into space at a much more affordable price. Since 1996, 20 teams have signed up to design novel methods of getting people into space in an affordable, repeatable and safe method.
The competition's progress
Kelly Space and Technology, Pioneer Rocketplane Inc. and Scaled Composites Inc. also are considered frontrunners in the X PRIZE competition.
British-team Starchaser Industries also successfully
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