Posted: Sun, Nov 7, 2004, 10:09 AM ET (1509 GMT)
The X Prize Foundation officially awarded a $10-million check Saturday to the team that developed and flew the SpaceShipOne manned suborbital reusable spacecraft. Mojave Aerospace Ventures (MAV), the team consisting of Scaled Composites and billionaire Paul Allen, received the check and 70-kilogram trophy during a ceremony outside the St. Louis Science Center Saturday morning. MAV won the prize with two flights of SpaceShipOne, on September 29 and October 4, that exceeded an altitude of 100 kilometers. The X Prize was established in St. Louis in 1996 as a bid to jumpstart a suborbital space tourism industry. With the prize now won, the foundation is turning its attention to an annual flight competition, the X Prize Cup, that will take place in New Mexico starting in 2006.

Related Links:

•  St. Louis Post-Dispatch article
•  AP article