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Show of 10-9-2004

  • Ansari X-Prize
    • The X-Prize is a prize sum of $10 million to be awarded by the X-Prize Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to make cheap,frequent yet safe human space flight a reality.
    • It is same in concept as the aviation prizes in the early 20th century, like the $25K Orteig prize won by Charles Lindburg.
    • It aims to accomplish this by giving away the prize to the builder of a reusable space vehicle that meets the criteria set by the organisation.
    • These criteria include:
      • The vehicle must have a capability to seat three persons.
      • The must reach a height of 100 kms.
      • The flight should be repeated in a span of 14 days.
      • The project should be privately financed completely.
      • The spacecraft should have high reusability.
    • The net result of the above rules means that the "space ship" should be cheap to build and run.
    • Prize named after Anousheh and Amir Ansari is co-founders of venture capital firm Prodea, Inc. They also co-founded Telecom Technologies, Inc., a supplier of softswitch-based solutions for network and service providers, which was acquired by Sonus Networks in 2000.. Read the press release announcing the sponsorship.
    • 24 teams have competed for the prize, one won it last week