x-Prize, Who's next?

[spacecc]

Now that the xprize had been won by Scaled Composites who’s going to fly next? Do you think the other xprize teams have lost their interest?

 

[no_way]

Im pretty sure that Romanian ARCA team will follow through. They have a bit of national prestige at stake here. I would think that StarChaser from UK and either of canadian teams will complete the quest as well.

 

[alokmohan]

But it is not much in news now.

 

[flynn]

Yeah, but the prize was only ever a part of a bigger competition. The real prize is entry into the very lucritive tourist business that follows.<br /><br />As much as I have always back the Uks meager efforts in Spaceflight I've always though Steve Bennets StarChaser to be somewhat lacking, I hope they proove me wrong. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#800080">"All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring" - <strong>Chuck Palahniuk</strong>.</font> </div>

 

[spacecc]

After a few years of competition we might see more space technology companies. Some of them could decide they can make money form launching satellites others might decide the space tourism is a better deal. <br />In my opinion Romanian team ARCA after a few successful launches it would rather go in the satellite technology area then space tourism. Either way x-prize helped the space technology industry and I’m personally very grateful for that.<br />

 

[spacecc]

I don’t know why but it seems a little bit too quiet in the x-prize world. I know, building spaceships is not something you can do over night but I haven’t heard too many news from the other teams lately.

 

[arobie]

I attribute the silence more to secrecy than to lack of progress. <br /><br />These companies are not like NASA. They don't have to inform us of their progress. It is better for them if they don't right now. If they have to many people knocking on their doors wanting to know more about a project, their work speed gets slowed down.

 

[rocketwatcher2001]

It seemed to me that it wasn't the prize money they were after, 10 million won't cover the development cost of the spacecraft, but something bigger/better. These guys are proving that they have "The Right Stuff"(Tips hat to Tom Wolfe) I don't know who's next, but I'm sure they are busy working on it. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>