Tomorrow, the Ansari X-Price takes place in the Mojave Desert, California. This year, the prize for landing a spacecraft 100 km above the ground is $10 million. The big favorite is the team of Paul Allen (Microsoft) and Burt Rutan (aerospace pioneer) with SpaceShipOne.
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipOne (which is one of the ships of the team of Paul Allen and Burt Rutan), brings us ever closer to private space flights.
But back to the X-Price:
The X-Price consists of obtaining 2 flights at 100 km above the ground, within a maximum interval of two weeks.
Allen and Rutan are confident of making it, but there are 24 more teams competing against them.
Among them is the team formed by Eric Meier and Phil Storm, from the company Space Transport Corp Inc, both renowned scientists and with experience in the manufacture of space probes since both worked for Aerojet Corp (Redmond [a town neighboring Seattle]).
[Mental note 1: Paul Allen = Seattle, Aero Jet Corp = Seattle… It seems that the Seattle area is in full aerospace boom. Is it because several generations of locals have worked at Boeing and the subsidiary companies that have sprung up around it?]
In the Seattle area, we also find another interesting company: Liftport Inc (Bremerton). It is none other than the company dedicated to building a space elevator, which will drastically reduce the cost of placing material in orbit. Specifically, according to statements by its President and founder Micheal Laine, the cost would be reduced from $20,000 per pound of weight to $400. The first prototype is already under construction.
(Article where we explained a few months ago, the operation of a space elevator: space elevator)
Although it seems clear that SpaceShipOne will win, most of the participants are really hoping to find investors for their projects. Projects that are all aimed at putting people and goods into space at low cost, which in itself seems to be a good business.
Unofficial sources are saying that Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, is also working on creating a company that will manufacture spaceships. Specifically, he has founded Blue Origin in Seattle (yes, Seattle again), a company that plans to dedicate itself to space tourism.
[Mental note 2: With Paul Allen (Seattle), Jeff Bezos (Seattle) and Richard Branson (London) we now have 3 multimillionaire entrepreneurs involved in the world of space tourism. This is a clear indication that there are business opportunities and money to be made.]
From these pages we will be following the X-Race over the next few days…
Very interesting years are coming, no doubt about it.
Additional information for those who wish to expand their knowledge:
X-Price Official Website:
X-Price
Information about the Argentine team that will compete in the X-Price:
WildFire
Seattle Post article discussing the virtues of Seattle-area companies and their relationship to the space tourism industry and X-Price:
Seattle Post – Space Tourism
