Allen's SpaceShipOne wins X Prize
ENT News | at | by Mike
A ship sponsored by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, SpaceShipOne, won the $10 million Ansari X Prize on Monday as the first privately built craft to fly into suborbital space two times in two weeks.
The X Prize, modeled after the early 20th century prizes that helped launch the commercial aviation industry, is intended to seed the space tourism industry. As part of the tourism theme, the prize required the winning ship to haul a pilot and the equivalent weight of two passengers to the edge of space and repeat the achievement in two weeks. More than 20 teams from seven countries were competing for the X Prize.