Discussion: X Prize Gets Investment And New Name

[Fraser]

SUMMARY: The privately funded X Prize received a helpful boost this week with a large investment from entrepreneurs Anousheh and Amir Ansari. The unspecified amount of money will be used to cover operation costs of the organization, including the insurance money that's backing the $10 million prize. The name of the prize has been changed to the Ansari X Prize, to recognize their contribution. 26 teams have registered to win the prize, which expires on January 1, 2005, if nobody can send their privately-built spacecraft into suborbital flight.

What do you think about this story? Post your comments below.

[ASEI]

Cool. Now if only it was enough to actually cover development costs, say $100 million or $300 M. Then you would see more people actually building rockets, rather than just talking about them. (I realize Burt Rutan has his act together, but he is the only one that is even close, and his sponsor is doing this at a loss, even if he wins).

[Al in Virginia]

What happens to the prize if nobody wins it in the next 7 months? How is it funded? Is it like a lottery where the winner gets an annual anuity?

[Duane]

From everything I can find, the deadline has not been extended. Seems puzzling to me that they wouldn't have extended it with the publicity they got from the new influx of cash and the new name.

[John]

Originally posted by ASEI@May 6 2004, 07:26 PM
Cool. Now if only it was enough to actually cover development costs, say $100 million or $300 M. Then you would see more people actually building rockets, rather than just talking about them. (I realize Burt Rutan has his act together, but he is the only one that is even close, and his sponsor is doing this at a loss, even if he wins).

The Canadian Arrow team has a working prototype that needs some testing before they can do an X-Prize qualifying launch, but they are serious. There's also the Starchaser team in England that has been launching test rockets for a few years, but don't have the human rated model finished. Then there is:

Advent Launch
ARCA
Armadillo Aerospace (funded by the guy that made Doom&#33
Da Vinci
HARC
InterOrbital Systems
Pablo de Leon & Associates
Rocket Planes
Space Transport Corp

All of them are building their engineering models or actual launch vehicles right now. There is a chance that the Canadian Arrow team could still beat Burt Rutan and Scaled Composites for the prize, although I think Rutan's hybrid system will be more cost effective.

And development is expensive, but not hundreds of millions. The whole point of the X-prize is to have private industry find ways to do it for about $10 million, and several of them have succeeded!