Spaceships

SpaceShipOne was only the beginning of a new phenomenon regarding spaceships. Instead of the old established launches, expect to hear about new types of space travel and new types of spaceships.

SpaceShipTwo

On October 4, 2004 SpaceShipOne won the X Prize competition. SpaceShipOne became the first private spaceship, on record, to go into outer space. [1]  Before this all trips into outer space were undertaken by government astronauts. Paul Allen, billionaire and co-founder of Microsoft, funded the SpaceShipOne project[2]. The main purpose of the X Prize Competition[3] was to begin a private commercial space transportation industry. The X Prize is now an annual event[4].

[1] See www.xprize.org.

This was an international competition open to all teams. Some teams have hired rocket scientists, and others are operating on a shoestring fueled by hobbyists and tinkerers. In 2004 there were 26 teams, from 7 nations actively involved in winning this competition. This competition is said to follow the pattern of more than 100 aviation incentive prizes offered between 1905 and 1935, which created today's multibillion-dollar air transport industry. For instance, in 1927, Charles Lindbergh competed in a $25,000 aviation prize and won when he was the first to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. At that time, Dr. Peter Diamanis, Chairman of the X PRIZE Foundation explained that Lindbergh's flight "was a mind-shift breakthrough" for the general public.  The teams who were involved in the initial X Prize competition were Scaled Composites (U.S.), Armadillo Aerospace  (U.S.), Canadian Arrow (Canada), Starchaser Industries (U.K.), Da Vinci Project (Canada), Pablo De Leon & Associates (Argentina), High Altitude Research Corporations (U.S.), Aeronautics & Cosmonautics (Romania), Advent Launch Services (U.S.), IL Aerospace Technologies (Israel), Interorbital Systems (U.S.), Space Transport (U.S.), American Astronautics (U.S.), Acceleration Engineering (U.S.), Bristol Spaceplanes, Ltd. (U.K.), Discraft Corporation (U.S.), Flight Exploration (U.K.), Fundamental Technology Systems (U.S.), Kelly Space and Technology (U.S.), Lone Star Space Access Corporation (U.S.), Micro-Space, Inc. (U.S.), Pan Aero, Inc. (U.S.),  Pioneer Rocketplan, Inc. (U.S.), Suborbital Corporation (Russia), TGV Rockets (U.S.), Vanguard Spacecraft (U.S.). For more information or an update on current X Prize events go to http://www.xprize.org.

New Mexico won the bid to host the X Prize Annual Cup in May of 2003 and has established itself as the "premier inland spaceport". Florida, California and Oklahoma were also bidding to host the annual competition. The Governor of New Mexico announced that "New Mexico has officially won its bid to host the X PRIZE CUP, an international space exhibition destined to energize the state's economy through tourism, global public interest and significant job growth". See Press Release of May 11, 2004, "New Mexico Wins Bid to Host X Prize" at http://www.edd.state.nm.us/PRESS/news.php?_fn=view&_rn=20001385.

The New Private Spaceships are extremely different from the traditional government spacecraft. Thus, there are referred to as being part of a space transportation revolution.

Space Transportation

Orbital Sciences Corporation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_Sciences_Corporation

© 2007 E.E. Weeks. OuterSpaceDevelopment. All Rights Reserved.