Time for some good news.

The race for the XPrize is coming down to the wire.

Two craft -- Ky Michaelson's CSXT and Bert Rutan's SpaceShipOne -- have succeeded in escaping Earth's grip. (That's SpaceShipOne from creator Scaled Composites' Web site.)

To win the $10 million, however, a contestant must reach a height of 62.5 miles, in a craft capable of carrying three people, and do it again within two weeks of the first launch.

But wait...the clock is ticking.

The fact is that the current prize is guaranteed to be there only through January 5, 2005.

This is getting good. Really good.

The prize, by the way, is modeled on the one that resulted in the flight of the Sprit of St. Louis in 1927, the New York to Paris challenge. I should mention here that my late great uncle, Arnold T. Harris, was on the crew of one of the ships who lost that race. But, let me had that had he won, it's unlikely he ever would have met my great-aunt Tillie and become my truest grandfather. I'm really kind of glad he lost.

Let that be a lesson to the competitors who fail here. Life doesn't end when you lose one race, no matter the prize or the glory that goes elsewhere. The honor comes from competing, and belongs to all the competitors.