It’s really great to see entrepreneurship taking up thereins in an area where the government has fallen behind. The AnsariX prize, won yesterday by the designers of SpaceShipOne, is aperfect example of how to get private enterprise interested in aproject.
The $10-million prize, sponsored primarily by the Ansari familyof Dallas, was created in May of 1996 as a means of jumpstartingthe private exploration of space.
The winning team had to design a ship that was capable ofcarrying three passengers to a height of 100 kilometers (62.5miles), returning to Earth and making another 100-kilometer tripwithin two weeks. The Ansari family fashioned the contest afterprevious races in aviation of the early 20th century, including theOrteig prize won by Charles Lindbergh in 1927 for the firsttrans-Atlantic flight.
SpaceShipOne, funded by more than $20 million by Microsoftco-founder Paul Allen, recouped less than half of its costyesterday when its designers, Mojave Aerospace Ventures LLC, wonthe X prize. The plane made its first flight last June in a testflight, but it marked the first flight into space by anon-government group.
The ship took flight again Sept. 29, marking the first of thetwo voyages required to win the X prize. It completed its second,prize-winning flight Monday morning.
According to an article by the Associated Press, RichardBranson, the British airline mogul and adventurer, announced hewill begin offering paying customers flights into space aboard.Branson said he had a deal, worth up to $25 million over 15 years,to license the technology that led to SpaceShipOne. Fares willstart at more than $200,000.
According to the same article, Marion C. Blakey, head of theFederal Aviation Administration, said, “This is the truefrontier of transportation…”
And what a frontier it might be. The private sector hasdemonstrated to the world that space is accessible to those of usnot involved in NASA or other governmental agencies.
An entire new industry now awaits us — space tourism.After more than 30 years of space exploration, it’sgratifying to see a journey to space may soon be possible for alarge portion of the population. How amazing will it be when the$200,000 tickets come down to something marginally affordable, andordinary citizens will be able to save for such a journey?
