Private Space Race Heats Up
Aerospace Tuesday, July 27, 2004 . This is a SciScoop post by mtigges
From the press release:
“Eight years ago, under the Arch in St. Louis, we kicked off the X PRIZE competition. Today I’m pleased to announce that the first team is ready to make an attempt to claim the $10 million, with other teams close behind, said Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, Chairman and Founder of the X PRIZE Foundation. “The American Mojave Aerospace Ventures Team and the Canadian da Vinci Project Team are just two of the 26 competing groups who will someday make it possible for spaceflights to be conducted from commercial spaceports across the globe. When the ANSARI X PRIZE competition is won, it will herald the start of a new renaissance of spaceflight in which the general public will have their chance to fly next.”
Previously: « Van Allen Questions Human Spaceflight
- Next:Say Goodnight, Gracie »
Comment Form
About
SciScoop Science News is a forum for news, views and controversial conjectures. Please contact us if would like to submit a guest post.
SciScoop Top Authors
- Total posts: 3177
- David Bradley (416)
- Bunyip (35)
- Chad (85)
- Drog (407)
- DV8 2XL (25)
- Wayne Goode (69)
- Gpmap (27)
- Ricky James (1367)
- Mertero (22)
- Mtigges (34)
- AP Smith (171)
- Sweetwind (64)
3 Responses to Private Space Race Heats Up
ikluft
July 27th, 2004 at 1:41 pm
For SpaceShipOne’s June 21 space flight, the motels in the town of Mojave sold out the day the flight was announced. People who used motel rooms stayed as far as Bakersfield or Lancaster.
Watch the
Mojave Airport
and
Scaled Composites “Tier One” manned space program
web sites for announcements on viewing info. If it’s anything like in June, there should be parking for tens of thousands of people, plus room for hundreds of RVs.
We found that the RV spots were large. They allowed one or two additional cars to park in the reserved space. (Whatever fits was OK, as long as your RV had a restroom for all your people.)
There were an estimated 27,000+ viewers on the airport grounds, though an unknown number of people watched from outside the airport in the desert. It was a lot less than the media’s estimates of 100,000 people, which had some of us worried.
For some idea what to expect, my friends and I
posted our pictures and video
of SpaceShipOne’s June 21 launch.
mtigges
August 5th, 2004 at 1:28 pm
space.com
Looks like the DaVinci Canadian team has set an Oct 2 launch date. This will be the first of the two launches to try to claim the prize. Personally, I just hope that they’re not rushing too much. Their launch is 3 days after Scaled make their first launch. Hopefully DaVinci will be succesful on the 2nd to provide some extra drama to the prize.
apsmith
August 5th, 2004 at 10:21 pm
It looks like they got some sort of Casino to pony up the $1/2 million they needed. Yeah, I hope they’re not rushing too much too. Rutan’s definitely taken things nice and carefully.