X Prize Looks to Spaceports for Rocket Races By Leonard David Senior Space Writer posted: 12:00 pm ET 22 July 2003
The X Prize Foundation is appealing to United States spaceports for help in creating a unique sporting event for passenger-carrying spaceships. The St. Louis, Missouri-based foundation has released a Request for Proposal (RFP) to all spaceports in order to select a strategic partner and hosting venue for what's being called the X Prize Cup. At present, some two dozen teams are vying for the $10 million X Prize. The winner of that purse must privately finance, build and launch a suborbital spaceship capable of carrying three people to 62.5 miles (100 kilometers) altitude; return safely to Earth; then repeats the feat with the same ship within two weeks. The competition's purpose is to jumpstart the space tourism industry through competition between talented entrepreneurs and rocket experts in the world. But what if your team doesn't snag the big money? Cup categories For those teams that are building hardware, but don't win the $10 million, the X Prize Cup is being established -- a chance for X Prize rocketeers to continue their efforts, X Prize Chairman, Peter Diamandis explained. The main objective of the X Prize Cup is to motivate X Prize teams to continue to innovate, diversify, and improve their vehicles, he said. Teams will compete in five different categories to win the overall Cup. These are: Fastest Turn Around Time (between 1st launch and 2nd landing) Maximum Number of Passengers (during one launch) Total Number of Passengers (during the 2 week period) Maximum Altitude Fastest Flight Time Every competing team will be scored in each category. There will be one winner per category and an overall X Prize Cup winner based upon total points scored. Roaring success The X Prize Cup is modeled after the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), Formula One racing, and the America's Cup. There is already a multi-billion-dollar sponsorship market, now monopolized by automobile racing and team sports. Diamandis feels that the X Prize Cup has the potential to become one of the largest space-related events. "We expect to draw hundreds of thousands of people from around the world to a single spaceport. They will attend to watch a dozen launches per day and cheer for their favorite team." Gregg Maryniak, Executive Director of the X Prize, feels that the Cup could be a roaring success, in economic terms. Events such as the Experimental Aircraft Association's Oskhosh Airshow and the Reno Air Races routinely bring $50 million to $80 million of economic value to the hosting community. Similarly, the X Prize Cup may well be a very strong, concrete benefit for a spaceport to deliver to their region, Maryniak said. Spaceport launch sites An evolving part of the commercial space transportation industry in the United States is the development of private or state-operated launch, re-entry, and processing sites known as "spaceports." Several states -- such as Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas, and California -- are developing commercial spaceports within their borders. These spaceports can provide space transportation service providers and their customers with an alternative to the traditional U.S. federal launch sites and ranges operated by either the U.S. Air Force or NASA. Why hold the X Prize Cup at a spaceport? "Spaceports offer a number of necessary elements such as the required infrastructure including launch pads, runways, telemetry, tracking, range safety, etc. They also have done the required environmental studies and launch site applications required by the Federal Aviation Administration's Commercial Space Transportation (AST) office for this class of vehicles," Diamandis told SPACE.com. Suborbital-friendly Diamandis said that the X Prize Cup would take place at the same location each year. "Using one location each year means that we can invest in that location on an annual basis and build up the long-term facilities that make it suborbital-friendly to the teams and industry," Diamandis said. An important segment of the X Prize Cup, in addition to the actual spaceship launches, would be the Public Spaceflight Exhibition. This display area is intended to give spectators a hands-on experience that personally involves them in the public spaceflight industry. The exhibition involves hands-on simulators and training, educational programming, vendors, exhibitors, airshows and technical briefings. _______________________________________________ ERPS-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.erps.org/mailman/listinfo/erps-list
