spacetoday.net: X Prize raises money, adds competitors

Posted: Thu, Oct 17, 2002, 6:43 AM ET (1043 GMT)
X Prize

The X Prize, a competition designed to foster the develop of a new generation of reusable suborbital vehicles, has added two new teams while claiming it has raised the full $10 million purse. SPACE.com reported Wednesday that X Prize chairman Peter Diamandis told World Space Congress attendees that the prize has secured its full $10 million award, something the prize had been trying to do for over five years. The money is available now and is secure at least through the end of 2004. The $10 million will go to the team that is the first to fly a privately-developed vehicle capable of carrying three people that flies to an altitude of 100 km twice in a two-week period. Two teams were officially added to the competition on Wednesday: Aeronautics and Cosmonautics Romanian Association (ARCA) and Armadillo Aerospace. Another X Prize competitor, Pablo De Leon and Associates of Argentina, is planning a launch of a half-scale version of its vehicle in 2003.