Wed Nov 4, 8:49 PM

KC Space Pirates team member Dan Leafblad is reflected in the mirror of the laser used by his team in the $2 million Space Elevator Games at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009. In a the test of the concept, robotic machines powered by laser beams will try to climb a cable suspended from a helicopter, on a course 900 meters (2,953 feet) high. (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Reed Saxon)