News Archive

Tuesday, October 5, 2004 X-Prize to Become Annual Contest X-Prize Credit: Ansari X-Prize If one X-Prize is good, two are better, right? Well, what about one every year? That's the thinking behind the recent announcement from the creators of the original X-Prize. An X-Prize Cup will be held annually in New Mexico in a new facility dubbed the Southwest Regional Spaceport. The participants will compete for five different categories: the fastest turnaround time between the first launch and second landing, the maximum number of passengers per launch, the total number of passengers during the competition, the maximum altitude and the fastest flight time. According to the X-Prize Cup website, this new competition will "dissolve the myth that [the average person] will never travel to space in their lifetime." We are witnessing history of the most amazing kind. We are going to see the rapid development and proliferation of spacecraft and the advent of the true space age in the next few years. (More info: X-Prize Cup, CNN.com) @ 22:40 EST