Year-old dreams of fast and cheap trips into space are now one step closer to reality. Scaled Composite’s SpaceShipOne, a privately funded spacecraft, won the Ansari X-Prize on Monday with its second trip to space and back.
In two flights, one on September 29 and again on October 4, SpaceShipOne flew to a height of over 62 miles, widely believed to be the point where Earth’s atmosphere ends and space begins.
SpaceShipOne is the first private craft to reach space. The pilots for its flights, Mike Melville and Brian Binnie, became the first recipients of private astronaut wings.
Burt Rutan, SpaceShipOne's designer, is hoping that "space tourism will be a multibillion-dollar industry" within 15 years.
Rutan may not have to wait that long. Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Atlantic, has invested $25 million into a new project, Virgin Galactic. Using technology licensed from Scaled Composites. Branson hopes to begin suborbital commercial flights within five years.
With the X-Prize now claimed, several other teams which were trying for the prize have announced intentions for orbital spaceflight. Millionaire Robert Bigelow announced a new $50 million prize for putting between five and seven people into orbit. Bigelow is currently developing a private space station.
Rutan intends to use SpaceShipOne as a prototype for larger space vehicles before retiring it from service. He envisions space travel becoming as commonplace as air travel is today.
Congress has already begun mulling safety regulations for the private space industry. Safety requirements for spacecraft and fitness requirements for passengers are among the items being considered.
The X-Prize was announced in 1996 as a $10 million prize to the first group to send a manned ship into space and back twice within two weeks. It was modeled after the Orteig Prize for solo transatlantic flight.
Much of the funding for SpaceShipOne was put up by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. More than $25 million was invested in the program, and Allen plans to share the prize with the Scaled Composites team.