New Scientist is on the scene at the ISPS in Las Cruces and reports that The da Vinci Project (or, more accurately, “The GoldenPalace.com Space Program - Powered by the da Vinci Project”) has unveiled designs for a new series of suborbital passenger vehicles. The XF1 is a single-person design that would initially be launched from a balloon (like the project’s original designs), but could later take off from a runway under jet engine power. The XF2 “Excalibur” is a two-passenger version that takes off from a runway and fly to 160 km altitude, while the XF3 “Valkyrie” would carry seven passengers and two pilots and be air-launched from a plane (similar to SpaceShipTwo). All these vehicles would be operated by a new venture called DreamSpace. The XF1 would be ready to fly as soon as the end of 2007, with the XF2 to follow in 2008 and the XF3 in 2010. However, the article makes no mention of how much funding (if any) da Vinci/Dream Space has lined up to actually develop and fly these vehicles. (The da Vinci Project web site doesn’t have any information about these new vehicles.)

SPACE.com’s Leonard David has an overview article about day 1 of the ISPS. Other than the da Vinci announcement it doesn’t sound like there was much in the way of news from the conference.

Update: the DreamSpace Group has a web site will illustrations of the XF1.

It’s been a commonly-held belief that people who pay to fly as tourists on Russian Soyuz missions to the ISS are helping the cash-strapped Russian space program. While Roskosmos may no longer be as desperate for money as it once was, it’s not clear exactly where those monies have gone. Reuters reports that Russian officials are questioning exactly how the funding provided by space tourists have been spent. The article reports that senior Finance Ministry official Sergei Pavlenko was “astonished” to find that Roskosmos “did not properly account for the money it made on space tourism”. Will this lead to any kind of backlash against allowing paying passengers on future Soyuz flights?

The Las Cruces Sun-News provides a final preview of the International Symposium for Personal Spaceflight, the two-day conference that starts this morning in Las Cruces. (Unfortunately I won’t be there; I don’t get into town until Wednesday night.) An interesting contrast: conference co-chair Bill Gaubatz focuses on the historical significance of the event (”[Imagine] it’s 1900, 1902 or 1903 and you had the opportunity to sit down with the Wright brothers.”) while Tim Pickens of Orion Propulsion is focused on the here and now (”For me it’s how am I going to make this stuff affordable and reachable to the common guy. You’re too busy to stop and reflect too much about the significance.”)

There haven’t been any other public announcements about Wirefly X Prize Cup events, including which teams (if any) will be approved to compete at in the Lunar Lander Challenge. One bit of good news: the current weather forecast for Las Cruces calls for mostly sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-70s Fahrenheit both Friday and Saturday. No mention of winds, but with any luck they won’t be anywhere near the gales that plagued last year’s event.

SpaceShot, the company offering skill contests that give people the opportunity to win a trip to space, made a few announcements yesterday. (The press release isn’t on its web site, but can be viewed on HobbySpace.) In brief, the company is setting up a Latin American unit and announced a new round of angel funding that will be used to develop a new site to be launched in the first quarter of 2007, including “new prizes, prices and a simpler version of the company’s unique on- line skill game.”