*The following is archival content from 2003, hosted on the original X PRIZE website, to maintain authenticity.

Ship Name: Solaris X Team Leader: Roderick and Randa Milliron Location: Mojave, California, USA Launch: Vertical Landing: Horizontal Website: www.interorbital.com Team Overview

Quote from Team

"The X Prize is 'High Noon' for the new commercial space movement. It provides a very public venue for companies to prove the worth of their space launch systems. It's a technology shootout, from which only those with pure focus and true scientific talent will emerge victorious."

Flight Sequence

Interorbital Systems (IOS), founded in 1996, is a privately funded aerospace corporation based in Mojave, California. The company develops, manufactures, and tests liquid rocket engines, space launch vehicles, and spacecraft. In addition, IOS provides end-to-end space launch services for its own vehicles. IOS is presently engaged in the development of its Neptune-Solaris Orbital Spaceliner, a two-stage manned reusable orbital launcher.

The orbiter stage in this configuration is the Solaris X rocket plane, IOS' X Prize entry. Solaris X is a liquid-propelled, vertical take-off/horizontal landing vehicle that will become the flagship of IOS' future suborbital space tourism operations. The Interorbital Systems' team possesses a broad cross-industry experience base, ranging from the academic disciplines of design, simulation, and analysis, to the hands-on skills of rocket prototyping, construction, and launch. Wally Funk, one of the original "Mercury 13" female astronaut trainees in the early 1960s, will pilot the Solaris X in IOS' X PRIZE launch attempts.