London was given a glimpse of a stellar future today with the arrival of a rocket promoting Britain's attempt at manned space flight.

The 40-foot Nova rocket, part of the UK based "Starchaser" team which hopes to put a man in space next year, drove into town and parked up next to the Millennium Eye.

Later the privately-built spacecraft made its way through London to visit the headquarters of firms in the city, going via Parliament Square.

The Metropolitian must have been warned that a huge missile was coming past Parliament on the back of a lorry, as officers looked on apparently 'unphased'.

Steven Bennett, CEO of Starchaser, is in town to drum up support for his brainchild.

If he can send three men into space in the next year, Mr Bennett stands a chance of winning the "XPrize" - an award of $10million for the first privately financed, totally re-usable, manned spacecraft.

The XPrize was announced in 1996 by a group of Americans who wanted to promote the possibility of space tourism.

According to the Starchaser team, to win the prize Mr Bennett and his team will have not only have to build and fly a three-person spacecraft 100 km to the edge of space and back, but also fly it again within two-weeks - to demonstrate its reusability.

The first manned flight is currently scheduled to take off from a launch pad in Australia in June 2005.

A spokesperson for Starchaser said the launch will be "the pinnacle" of 15 years research and development by a team of British rocket specialists, lead by Mr Bennett.

Steven Bennett said: "The uniqueness of Starchaser - the heroic, pioneering, all British nature of the venture we believe will mean that Starchaser will replace Concorde in the affections of the British public."

The project is funded entirely from donations.

Starchaser is currently joint favourite to win the XPrize.