The New Mexico Museum of Space History will be shipping names to the stars with the first X-Prize launch into space.
The museum is working with the St. Louis Science Center and X-Prize Foundation to send the names starward. Anyone interested in having their name in space can sign up at the museum until Aug. 27. The cost is $10 per name.
"This is a wonderful opportunity for the general public to participate in an innovative new space product," museum marketing director Jack Moore said.
The first X-Prize flight of SpaceShipOne is slated for Sept. 29 from Edwards Air Force Base in California. The craft will aim to reach an altitude of 62 miles and repeat the feat within two weeks.
If SpaceShipOne doesn't make the first flight, the names will be flown on a competing vessel.
New Mexico was selected in May as the site for the X-Prize Cup, a proposed annual competition for reusable spacecraft. Peter Diamandis, chairman of the St. Louis-based X-Prize Foundation, has said that by 2006, competitors from around the world should be launching reusable launch vehicles from New Mexico.
The annual competitions will have cash prizes. Categories include fastest turnaround, maximum passengers carried, maximum altitude, and fastest flight time.