This team is led by Steve McGrath of Bridgwater, Massachussetts, USA. Unusually, the vehicle is to carry a crew of FOUR. There's confidence. By the way, women need not apply - it says "four-man" on the X-Prize site. Shown above is the upper stage of the two-stage-plus-cabin craft, and some detail of the flight trajectory, which culminates in a "splashdown". Propulsion is by solid and liquid engines, says the information on the X-Prize site.

From the downloadable team briefing, we see that: "Team Vanguard is the result of an exhaustive search for bright, talented and dedicated individuals brought together to take the first steps into commercial space travel and to establish safe, reliable and profitable off-world infrastructure." There then follows a brief CV of the aforementioned Steve, but of no other individuals. Further on into the briefing, five other people are listed, together with their organisational functions. The liquid fuels are given as hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide. This is an unusual combination for X-Prize teams and it doesn't sound like fun. Although both fuels can be handled without cryogenic facilities, they are hypergolic. That is, they will react on contact. They also require skilled and careful handling, together with some sort of certification for the people doing the handling, and the facilities used.

The picture, left, of the cabin, is, clearly, an art-package rendition. Also, from the team briefing, the only tests of hardware have been of "small" rockets. The last one of these was in June 2003. Given this, and the size of what is to built and tested, it doesn't look as if this team is going to get very far by the time the X-Prize has been won by others. No doubt, the lack of progress can be put down to a corresponding lack of funding, from which all the X-Prize projects, bar two, suffer, to a greater or lesser extent.

As of April 2004, their website is showing some pictures of a small rocket (about 9in diameter by 6 feet tall). The latest picture was dated 28th June 2003.If this is where things have got to, the Vanguard people must be losing heart, by now.