Mike wrote:

Aren't they ? I thought the prize had been won. Don't they actually have
to achieve orbit to win ?

No just a specific height, 100km IIRC, their trajectory was something
like this ...

^
/ \
| |
| |
| |
| |
/ |
/ \
-/ \-

Wouldn't "orbital velocity" vary depending on the height you wished to
orbit at? Perhaps someone was thinking of "escape velocity" which is
about 26,000mph