FWIW,

"A Spaceship for Sale on eBay May Win Half a Million Dollars"
Integrated Media Company Press Release
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070205/lam119a.html?.v=1

: A spaceship inspired by beautiful novelist Vanna Bonta is for sale
: on eBay, winning the high bidder a place in aerospace and literary
: history and possibly half of a million-dollar grand prize.

: A rocket competing in a NASA Lunar Lander competition has been
: named 'Lauryad,' after the spaceship from American novelist Vanna
: Bonta's quantum fiction FLIGHT trilogy, and is being auctioned on
: eBay, Integrated Media announced.

: The rocket's team is competing in the Lunar Lander Challenge
: taking place this October (07) against several contenders,
: including video game whiz John Carmack (Doom, Quake), for a grand
: prize of one million dollars.

: The Chief Engineer, Allen Newcomb, also worked on SpaceshipOne,
: genius aviation maverick Burt Rutan's manned spacecraft that won
: the 10 million dollar Ansari X Prize. Newcomb said he was inspired
: by Bonta's space- adventure novel Flight, and also Bonta's
: aviation tribute video "What Goes Up."

: The high bidder on eBay will take home the Lauryad spaceship
: itself, and also half of any prize money it wins. The spaceship
: will be competing in two categories for several prizes.

: Bonta, a prize-winning poet and actress, blogged on myspace about
: being informed the lunar lander was named Lauryad. "I was really
: gobsmacked. It's very moving ... I'm deeply humbled to think I've
: in any way been inspiring, especially toward a goal I respect so
: immensely."

: Bonta also stated, "The really exciting focus here is not this
: detail, though -- it's the event and others like it that
: encourage, support and celebrate the enterprising innovation of
: pioneers working to give humanity wings."

: FLIGHT fans worldwide are no doubt rooting for a physical
: incarnation of the fictional Lauryad to soar to victory, but it's
: not just fiction aficionados. The bidding has begun and several
: companies are in talks about sporting their logo on the side of
: the lunar lander for the global media exposure and positioning
: panache.

eBay auction Lunar Lander http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Lunar-
Lander-Contest-
Vehicle_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ63679QQihZ001QQitemZ110086258923QQ
rdZ1QQssp agenameZWDVW

Mark Reiff