Well, I was going to write about the awesome news from Amazon.com today but, Eric beat me to the punch.
So, in continuation of what I was talking about yesterday, I’d like to draw your attention to the X Prize.
The X PRIZE is a $10,000,000 prize to jumpstart the space tourism industry through competition between the most talented entrepreneurs and rocket experts in the world. The $10 Million cash prize will be awarded to the first team that:
-Privately finances, builds & launches a spaceship, able to carry three people to 100 kilometers (62.5 miles)
-Returns safely to Earth
-Repeats the launch with the same ship within 2 weeks
I heard an NPR segment about 6 months ago (audio transcript here) on this very subject. Pretty much everyone involved in the project agreed that the main obstacle standing in their way is government regulation.
