The X-Prize

A further incentive for developing a reusable launch vehicle is the chance to claim the X-Prize. Established in 1996 by entrepreneur Peter Diamandis and a consortium of St. Louis, Missouri businessmen, the X-Prize Foundation will award $10 million to the first team to build and fly a launch vehicle capable of carrying three passengers to an altitude of 100km - not once - but twice within the space of two weeks.

Compared to the cost of developing such a launch vehicle, the prize money itself is a relatively trivial sum. The real rewards are the publicity, the fame and perhaps most of all, the prestige of being the first to pull it off. In a way it's analogous to the Orteig Prize, which was offered for the first successful non-stop flight between New York City and Paris. The prize was claimed by American aviator Charles Lindburgh in May 1927, and in doing so he helped lay the foundations for the multi-billion dollar trans-continental air industry that exists today. Another parallel is the prize offered by the English Government in 1714 for a reliable method of determining longitude at sea. The £20,000 reward was famously won by clock maker John Harrison who designed a chronometer that was both accurate and seaworthy.

To date, some twenty teams have registered their entries in the competition, including some of the designs mentioned on the previous page.

Follow the progress of the competition on the official X-Prize web site.

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