Future frontiers of X-Prize

These are the voyages of the VSS-Enterprise, its ongoing mission: to open new markets and industries, to peak the public's interest in space travel, to boldly go where the private sector thus far has feared to trek. SpaceShipOne crossed the finish line Oct. 5 winning the $10 million Ansari X-Prize and a 6-foot trophy with its second space shot in less than a week and in the process breaking a 41-year old altitude record on the 47th anniversary of the Soviet launch of Sputnik 1, the world's first satellite. Although now won, the X-Prize competition is only the beginning, space enthusiasts and investors maintain.\nBrian Binnie, 51, took SpaceShipOne to a height of 367,442 feet on this second flight and became the second private citizen to earn astronaut's wings, telling The Associated Press that "(This) is a thrill that I think everybody should have once in a lifetime." Binnie's altitude of nearly 70 miles smashed the altitude record for an airplane, set by X-15 pilot Joseph Walker in 1963. President George W. Bush phoned members of the winning team, congratulating them and stating that they are the newest heroes of the space age.\nAmong the thousands on hand for the launch was British billionaire Sir Richard Branson, head of the British-based Virgin Group, which last week announced a $21 million deal to build a fleet of five modified SpaceShipOnes -- the first of which will be called VSS-Enterprise and have a five-person capacity -- for a new company called Virgin Galactic. Flights are due to begin in as little as three years with ticket prices starting in the range of $200,000. Branson told reporters that "Virgin has pledged that any money we make from space travel will be reinvested to make this opportunity available for the next generation of children." In addition to undergoing the training, anyone who purchases a ticket will have to undergo nearly a full week's training for the three-hour flight.\nThe company 7-Up, which was an underwriter of the X-Prize competition, has already announced plans to have a contest in which the winner will receive a free ticket on the first Virgin Galactic space flight.\nThe majority of the remaining 25 X-Prize competitors that have yet to make a launch have expressed that they will continue with development. Space Transport Corp. will launch its Rubicon 2 rocket on Oct. 16. In a written statement, the company said, "Along with many of the X-Prize competitors, STC will continue developing the technologies that will allow tourism and space trucking to orbit, to the moon and beyond."\nThe head of the X-Prize competition, Peter Diamandis, has also announced his plans for establishing an X-Prize Cup, which will be a competition for private space vehicles to be conducted annually in New Mexico starting in 2006. "The Ansari X-Prize is the beginning; it's not the end," Diamandis told the AP. "Over the course of the last two weeks we have had companies approaching us, we have had wealthy individuals approaching us about investing in this marketplace. The same thing happened when Lindbergh flew."\nGroups such as Bristol Spaceplanes Limited have already begun to focus on the next logical goal of getting into orbit. "I think SpaceShipOne's success has triggered a race for orbital spaceflight where you can spend days and not just minutes in space," said David Ashford, director of Bristol Spaceplanes. \nSpaceShipOne is also being marketed to smaller nations that lack the resources for a massive government space program but want astronauts of their own, as well as for scientific research where there is currently a 15-year waitlist for launch of scientific payloads on the shuttle.\nIn the wake of the X-Prize competition and as part of its efforts to develop a new national space policy in the aftermath of the Colombia disaster, a NASA official told www.space.com that the federally funded agency might offer awards for commercial spaceflight. According to Reuters news agency, prizes might range up to $200 million for the attainment of goals like soft lunar landing or bringing back a piece of an asteroid. "What we're looking for is innovation like what Burt Rutan (the creator of SpaceShipOne) has brought to the table," said Michael Lembeck of NASA's office of exploration systems in an interview with Reuters. \n-- Contact staff writer Scott Shackelford at sjshacke@indiana.edu.