STARGAZERS in the north west will have a chance to see the country's entry in a $10m space race.

The UK's rocketman Steve Bennett is in Chester today to promote this year's Cheshire Science Festival and he'll be bringing Starchaser, his prototype 40ft rocket that he hopes will propel three people into space and earn him a fortune.

A competition called the X-prize - set up in The States in 1996 to promote space tourism - offers big cash to the first non-governmental organisation to send three people into space and return them to terra firma.

Mr Bennett, founder of Starchaser Industries and director of the Space Technology Laboratories at Salford University, will be at Universirty College Chester to raise public awareness of the 2004 Science Festival, sponsored by the Learning and Skills Council and the regional development agency.

To win the prize, private teams must finance, build, and fly a spacecraft to the edge of space, return safely and then be able to re-use their craft within two weeks.