The Ansari X Prize (formerly the X Prize) was a US$10,000,000 prize, offered by the X PRIZE Foundation, for the first non-government organization to launch a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice within two weeks. What is It

Who Created it? Dr. Peter H. Diamandis Founder and Chairman of the X PRIZE Foundation, whose $10 million Ansari X PRIZE sparked the birth of the personal spaceflight industry.

Motivation and Creation The X Prize was designed to help encourage the space industry in the private sector. It aimed to demonstrate that space-flight can be affordable and accessible to corporations and civilians The X Prize was modeled after many prizes from the early 20th century that helped prod the development of air flight.

Contestants Twenty-six teams from around the world participated, ranging from volunteer hobbyists to large corporate-backed operations The contestant list notably did not include traditional space access companies like Boeing and Lockheed, however, the X Prize Foundation itself did not ban these companies from applying, so long as they could prove their efforts on this project would be free of government funding. Out of these 26 teams, Tier One (also referred to as Scaled Composites and Mojave Aerospace Ventures on occasion) was the only team to make a suborbital flight.

A rocket belonging to a team taking a low-budget stab at the $10m (£5.7m) Ansari X-prize has exploded less than 1,000 feet into the air. The rocket, which crashed about 60 metres (200 feet) from lift-off after its parachute failed to deploy, will have to be completely rebuilt, said Eric Meier, co-founder of Space Transport Corporation - the team behind the attempt. Space Transport Corporation's Rubicon 1 A Little Setback?

Where do we go from here? The X PRIZE Cup is the result of a partnership between the X PRIZE Foundation and the State of New Mexico that began in 2004 with plans to build the world's first true rocket festival.

Visions

Are You Interested? The X PRIZE Cup takes place on Friday and Saturday, October 20 and 21, from 7am to 4pm at the Las Cruces International Airport, located at 8960 Zia Boulevard in Las Cruces, New Mexico.. Rocket launches begin early in the morning to take advantage of optimal weather conditions.

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