X-Prize event to push spacecraft
This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press on Wednesday, May
12, 2004.
By ALLISON GATLIN
Valley Press Staff Writer
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SANTA FE, N.M. - The X-Prize Cup, envisioned as an annual international
event that will showcase emerging commercial space ventures in a series
of races, has implications for Mojave Airport in the future.
The event is seen as a continuation of the spirit of the Ansari X-Prize
competition, an international race intended to jump-start the commercial
space tourism industry.
The Ansari X-Prize competition will award $10 million to the first privately funded team to successfully build and launch a spacecraft capable of carrying three people to an altitude of 328,000 feet and safely return to Earth, then turn around and duplicate the feat with the same ship within two weeks. The prize is expected to be awarded this year.
An entirely separate event, the first X-Prize Cup is expected to be a demonstration in the summer of 2005, with competitive races beginning the following year. Because New Mexico's planned spaceport will not be ready, the inaugural event will be at the nearby White Sands Missile Range.
Mojave-based Scaled Composites is seen as a front-runner in the Ansari X-Prize competition. The company's entry, the Burt Rutan-designed SpaceShipOne, has already flown two successful flights.
Mojave Airport, which has the first "substantially complete" spaceport application on file with the FAA, considered applying to be host to the X-Prize Cup, said general manager Stuart Witt. However, airport officials decided that Mojave did not have the hospitality infrastructure necessary to accommodate the number of visitors expected for the yearly event.
While the Ansari X-Prize competition has more of a research and development focus, the X-Prize Cup is closer to an air show exhibition to promote commercial space travel, Witt said. The two are completely separate events.
New Mexico has plans for a spaceport at Upham, near Las Cruces in the southeast portion of the state, said Rorie Hanrahan, communications director for the New Mexico Economic Development Department. Only minimal infrastructure exists at the site, but the state Legislature recently approved $4 million for construction there as part of a $9 million package intended to support the X-Prize Cup and the spaceport.
The state has submitted an application for the spaceport license and is in the middle of the review process, Hanrahan said.
Applying for a spaceport license is a lengthy process, as Mojave officials can attest. That site began its own application in January 2003, and expects a decision from the FAA between June 20 and July 7, Witt said.
Challengers in the Ansari X-Prize competition are not limited to New Mexico for their launches. Preparations are still under way for Scaled Composites' attempt at the Mojave Airport, expected sometime later this year, Witt said.
agatlin@avpress.com
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