"We found it fitting to reward a contest that has developers exploring state-of- the-art IT technologies with something from the burgeoning commercial space industry by sending a lucky developer to the edge of space," said Ted Farrell, chief architect and vice president, Application Development Tools, Oracle, as Oracle this week announced it is sending Brian Emmett, a senior software developer for Oracle's customer Stryker, to suborbital space as the grand prize winner of the Oracle Space Sweepstakes.

A leader and innovator in the global software industry, Oracle teamed with Space Adventures, Ltd., the world's leading space experience company, to create the Oracle Space Sweepstakes and provide a software developer with the unique opportunity to win a trip to space.

"Brian will have the unique opportunity to participate in the birth of suborbital space travel. And as a space enthusiast, he understands the significance of such a flight," said Eric Anderson, president and CEO of Space Adventures. "The commercial availability of suborbital space travel will enable thousands to experience what only a few hundred have before them."

The Oracle Space Sweepstakes was designed to help software developers increase their understanding and use of leading-edge Java and SOA development technologies. Held in U.S., the District of Columbia and Canada from December 5, 2004 to May 31, 2005, the sweepstakes challenged participants to demonstrate their knowledge and expertise by correctly answering several multiple-choice questions in a series of quizzes focused on the latest Java and SOA technologies, including Struts, J2EE persistence, code optimization, Application Development Framework, JavaServer Faces, application deployment and manageability, Web services and Business Process Execution Language (BPEL). Participants also tested Oracle JDeveloper 10g, Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE (OC4J) 10g, Oracle BPEL Process Manager 10g and Oracle TopLink 10g to successfully complete the Oracle Space Sweepstakes quizzes.

Grand Prize winners of the Oracle Space Sweepstakes will also be announced from EMEA and the Asia-Pacific region, the company says. In addition to the suborbital flights, other sweepstakes prizes include Mac PowerBooks, Apple iPods and "Star Wars" trilogy DVD sets.