From: Enigl@aol.com
Date: Sun Apr 27 1997 - 13:39:18 MDT
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From: AOLNewsProfiles@aol.net
Date: 97-04-27 12:03:58 EDT
<HTML><PRE><I>.c The Associated Press</I></PRE></HTML>
By CONNIE FARROW
ST. LOUIS (AP) - The prize: $10 million. The task: launch a
spaceship that can give the average person a weekend trip in space.
So far, 10 teams have registered to compete for the prize. The
contestants range from inventors and company presidents to a
serviceman and a retiree.
The X Prize Foundation is offering the $10 million prize in the
hope private enterprise will build a new space travel industry. The
successful contestants must be able to build a spacecraft that can
carry three adults 62 miles into space, can make two flights in two
weeks and can land intact.
Peter Diamandis, a 35-year-old with a medical degree from
Harvard and an aerospace engineering degree from MIT who heads the
foundation, said his generation grew up believing ``2001: Space
Odyssey'' was more than a movie.
``Many people felt we clearly would have low-cost access for
paying tourists in space by this point,'' he said.
Diamandis is not alone in his dream of vacations in space at
``orbital hotels'' with panoramic views of the Earth. When he
announced the prize last year on the Gateway Arch grounds in St.
Louis, the crowd included Buzz Aldrin, who walked on the moon with
Neil Armstrong in 1969, and Burt Rutan, who created the first plane
to fly around the world without refueling. Rutan was the first to
announce his intent to enter the X Prize competition.
Although the private sector must build the winning rocket, NASA
Administrator Dan Goldin said the government would provide any
technical information that has been made public and make available
equipment for purposes such as wind tunnel tests.
Paul Tryon, a 65-year-old retiree from the St. Louis suburb of
Hazelwood, was the ninth contestant to enter. He has more than 34
years experience in aeronautical engineering, having worked for
McDonnell Douglas and Bell Aircraft.
``I definitely think it can be done,'' Tryon said. ``I think it
has to be done if we're ever going to make serious use of space.''
Although most contestants won't talk in detail about their
plans, Tryon said his initially involved using an F-4 military
aircraft, which was built by McDonnell Douglas and is no longer
used in the United States. He figured he could overhaul the control
panel so the plane would go faster and make the altitude.
``My personal opinion is that you'll never be able to get the
American public into something that looks like the Apollo,'' Tryon
said. ``I think they'd be afraid of it, and frankly I think they'd
be justified.''
The Air Force has since rejected Tryon's request to use an F-4,
leaving Tryon back at square one.
``I'm not sure if I'll be able to carry on,'' he said. ``I don't
want to develop a plane from scratch.''
Robert Zubrin, co-founder of Pioneer Rocketplane in Lakewood,
Colo., said he was putting together a team to raise capital and
build his spacecraft. Tony McPeak, former Air Force chief of staff
and a four-star general, is among those he has recruited, Zubrin
said.
``The same vehicle that we are developing for the X Prize
competition will be able to launch satellites at half the current
price or be able to fly passengers from New York to London in less
than one hour,'' Zubrin said.
Teammates Gary C. Hudson, president, and Bevin McKinney, chief
executive, of HMX Inc., California, have been designing and
building launch vehicles for more than a decade. The two are
already doing some sheet metal work, according to Collette Bevis,
spokeswoman for X Prize Foundation.
Rutan, president of Scaled Composites in Mojave, Calif., has a
formidable track record in aeronautical engineering. He created the
Voyager, which in 1986 became the first aircraft to fly around the
world on one tank of fuel.
``I believe that we have to have tourism, and I am tired of
waiting for someone else to do it,'' Rutan said. ``Compared to the
difficulty, danger and expense of flying in the 1920s, in relative
numbers, leaving the atmosphere is a piece of cake.''
The announcement of the prize came on the 69th anniversary of
Charles Lindbergh's solo, nonstop flight from New York to Paris.
That flight in his Spirit of St. Louis single-engine plane took
place May 20-21, 1927.
Lindbergh won a $25,000 prize offered by New York hotel owner
Raymond Orteig in 1919. Eight others grasped at the prize but
failed. Lindbergh was backed by eight businessmen.
Like Lindbergh, the not-for-profit X Prize Foundation has
received support from St. Louis business leaders, who have donated
$1 million for operations of the foundation. They're working on
raising the $10 million for the prize.
The prize's sponsor ideally would be a company, looking to
target men ge 20 to 50, but individuals also have been approached,
Diamandis said.
``This is not science fiction, this is real faith,'' he said.
``The fact that we have 10 teams registered so far shows that the
will, the drive and the technology is out there.''
Diamandis predicted that someone will win the X Prize in three
to five years. ``And one to two years after that, we will have
commercial tickets available for sale,'' he said.
Although some make fun of the X Prize, Diamandis believes he'll
have the last laugh. ``The best way to predict the future is to
create it,'' he said. ``And that's what we're trying to do.''
For more information on the X Prize, see the foundation's web
site at www.xprize.org.
AP-NY-04-27-97 1201EDT
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