...And this time, it looks very, very real. From HobbySpace's RLV News:

Today in Mojave, California Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites company rolls out their two stage suborbital transportation system to compete for the X PRIZE and to serve the space tourism market. According to the company:

"This event will show not just dreams or mockups in search of funding, but an extensive two-year-old research program including all new hardware: airborne launcher, spaceship, rocket propulsion, avionics, simulator and ground support elements."



"Scaled Composites, the most prolific research aircraft development company in the world, is tired of waiting for others to provide affordable human space access. Active and hidden for two years, an aggressive, manned sub-orbital space program has been in work in the Mojave, CA desert.

"The event is not about dreams, predictions or mockups. We will show actual flight hardware: an aircraft for high-altitude airborne launch, a flight-ready manned spaceship, a new, ground-tested rocket propulsion system and much more. This is not just the development of another research aircraft, but a complete manned space program with all its support elements.

"The unveiling is not a marketing event. We are not seeking funding and are not selling anything. We are in the middle of an important research program - to see if manned space access can be done by other than the expensive government programs. After the unveiling, we will go back into hiding to complete the flight tests and conduct the space flights."

There's pictures over at Hobbyspace, too -- worth checking out.

Tom -- you knew about this, didn't you? I saw those hints you were dropping!

Quite excited,

Nathan.