according to Alan Boyle from MSNBC. Alan knows his stuff.

May 17, 2004 | Updated 10:30 p.m. ET
Next flight to space: Exactly five months ago, Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne rocket plane racked up its first supersonic flight, reaching an altitude of 68,000 feet. Last month, during the second supersonic test, it soared to 105,000 feet. Last week it got to 211,000 feet.

So what's next? The target for SpaceShipOne's next powered flight is the magic number of 100 kilometers, or roughly 329,000 feet, says Scaled Composites spokeswoman Kay LeFebvre. If that flight is successful, with a repeat performance during the following two weeks, Scaled Composites would win the $10 million Ansari X Prize for private-sector spaceflight.

The X Prize Foundation confirmed today that it would give 60-day notice of any prize attempt (even though the official rules talk about a 30-day period). That means there are no Ansari X Prize flights planned until July 17 at the earliest. That also means I totally blew my Fourth of July prediction: I had read too much into the foundation's plan for a May 5 announcement, which turned out to be about the Ansari family's backing for the $10 million purse.

Of course, the SpaceShipOne team can fly its plane anytime it wants to — say, for a 100-kilometer test flight that wouldn't count toward the Ansari X Prize. But the team appears to be gearing up for a media splash befitting what could be SpaceShipOne's first official spaceflight.

I really don't see any benefit from pushing the notification deadline from 30 to 60 days. All that does is push back the timeframe for making a prize attempt.